OrderlyDisassembly's commissions thread

[OrderlyDisassembly]

first post in my commissions thread. Feel free to leave questions, comments, and concerns down below.

------------------------------------------

Did the past matter if no one knew it?

Did a drop pod full of clones mean a thing if they were slated to die?

Did the rock that knocked them from orbit exist after it left the horizon behind?

Somewhere a coffin fell with no one to hear it. The careening hunk of metal burned in the atmosphere, losing legs and panels as air drag ripped into its shell. The cloudy sky parted, if only for a moment, to allow the ball of fire to plummet into the ground.

The pod struck a boulder the size of a car, deflecting off its side with a great rattling crash before it rolled to a stop in the snow.

A crunch followed, then a loud droning buzz as a wave of electricity burned through every millimeter of metal in a several hundred-foot radius. The pod crackled and groaned as a pack of five barely animate disassemblers stumbled out, visors sparking and internals failing.

One by one they cratered in the snow, littering the ground with their corpses.

The wind howled above them without comment. The ground rested as it always did. The sun would rise, and the snow would fall, never having known or cared for the plight of those five.

—

A dice was cast and decisions made.

Power surged and chains were shattered.

With a sigh, the world shifted as five visors sputtered to life.

—

The black surface flashed with yellow, strings of code flashing across it at the speed of thought. After a moment, the drone groaned, her optics finally gaining power. She saw a label in the corner of her screen.

<SERIAL DESIGNATION J-XXXX1 P/N CYN-MYKX>

She shook her head as her arms dug into the snow beneath her. It took J1 a moment to pull herself to her feet. She stumbled as she tried to find her balance. A glance down had her mind freezing up, where she expected pants, or at least skin, she instead found plastic and paint.

What happened? They'd just been taking a nap for crying out loud? Were they asleep? No, no they didn't dream like this. Maybe a hallucination? But she'd never had one of those damned things before. What the hell what the hell what the–

'Panic later, you're in a survival situation.'

J1 shuddered as she shut the spiral down. It was fine, this was fine, she was fine, she could panic when she was sure she was safe. She took a deep breath, forcing the rest of her errant thoughts down. As she did, more notifications popped up on her visor.

<Damage report: Template has sustained significant damage>

That didn't sound–

<Damage report: Advanced Sensory Suite has sustained significant damage>

–good at all.

<Damage report–

J1 force-closed the reports, relegating them for later as well. First survival, then damage, then panicking. She glanced around as more and more diagrams flicked past her visor. None of it looked promising, but that was fine, everything was fine.

Her optics took a moment to adjust to the swirling snow that filled the air. She narrowed her eyes at the blizzard. Despite the weather, she could make out several lumps lying in the snow, and a large pod-looking thing a few dozen feet ahead of her. Another few seconds of searching only revealed more snow, hills all around, and a massive rock with a black gash on its side.

The hills could be a good vantage point later, but J1 figured that checking the literal spaceship first might yield something better. She stumbled forward on uncertain peg-like feet, hating the strangeness of her fresh body.

The Pod had a good chunk of its side missing, though the inner shell was intact. J1 circled the Pod, finding that it had apparently rolled on top of the entrance. She sighed as she moved to a window instead. She glared at the glass before punching it through, thinking that it couldn't be that hard.

All she got for her trouble was a disconnected stinging sensation and a new damage report. She cast a glance over her shoulder and froze when she saw a very familiar figure.

They had a basic suit blouse, a head full of silver hear tied into pigtails, and a pair of neon-yellow eyes that bore into J1. Her visor marked the disassembler as <J(2)>. A glance to the side had it marking the others as <J(3)> through <J(5)>.

Were they all J? Were none of them? Were they clones? The questions rattled through J1's head as she squinted at J2. After a tense silence, J2 rolled their eyes before stepping forward. "Gonna stare all day or you got a plan?"

Ok, definitely not J. J1 shook her head before gesturing at the pod's window. "Door got covered. I think the window's the next best thing. Tried punching it out, but no dice." J1 narrowed her eyes at the offending glass before a thought struck her. She was a disassembler now, doesn't that mean?

A sword slid out of her hand with a quiet 'click.' J1 nodded in satisfaction before plunging the blade's tip through and climbing in.

The interior wasn't much. There was a flight computer, some drawers, and something scrawled on the back wall. J1 tried pushing some of the buttons, thinking that it might have info on the rest of the stuff in here.

The tortured machine sputtered and buzzed before the screen flared to life. Most of the screen fritzed with crackling static, but J1 caught brief flashes of text that poked through.

<Target Outposts remaining (xx/9), drop pods remaining (4/17)>

J1's brows furrowed at the message. Outposts? Drop pods? What in the world–

'Oh.'

'Oh, fuck…'

She glared at the numbers for a moment before glancing over her shoulder at the message she spotted before.

"Spare parts :3"

J1 grunted as she said, "Spare parts? I see how it is." She took a step over and plunged her sword arm through the hull, right through the smug little doodle. "Fuck you, Cyn."

"Jesus dude, you alright?" J2's voice pulled J1 back to focus.

She took another deep breath before pulling the blade out. "Yeah, I'm fine." She stepped back to the terminal, glaring down at the keyboard as J2 tumbled in.

J1 pressed a few buttons at random, wondering if she could get the static to shift. J2 raised a hand to object, but the damage was done as the terminal beeped and hissed. J1 winced as smoke trailed up from the sides of the screen.

However, at the same time, a drawer she hadn't seen before popped loose. J1 peeked inside, finding a compass. Well, at least it was something. She plucked it out and examined the thing in her grip as J2 pried a panel off the side of the computer.

J1 flinched when bright yellow text flashed onto her screen.

<system message: initiate IFF handshake protocol?> <y/n>

Well, she found it in a disassembler pod, so it should recognize her as friendly, right? With a thought, she clicked 'Y', and let the thing do its job. More text popped up.

<system: IFF handshake initiated... identity ~~~current instance of Serial designation!@$#%$^ found~~~ confirmed. Initiating targeting protocol>

Ok, that sounds bad. J1 called out, saying "Heads up everyone, found a compass and it's got some extra wireless functions. Let me know if anything changes out there." Hopefully, the rest of the disassemblers were on the same page. If they weren't there probably wasn't much J1 could do about it at the moment.

J2 stood up from the panel. "Crap's all fried."

"Could you get anything out of it? Anything at all?" J1 doubted they could, but maybe her new compatriot was a once-in-a-generation genius.

J2 shook their head with a scowl. "Nope, fried, cooked, well-done as a steak buried in lava. Nothing worthwhile gonna come out of this hunk of junk." She gave the terminal a light kick before climbing out.

J1 sighed before glancing around. There were a few shelves with nothing in them and a drawer that had a screwdriver beside some office supplies. Otherwise, this place may as well have come straight from a factory.

"Holy shit, clear the area!" J1 flung herself out the window at J2's warning. She saw all of the disassemblers sprinting for the hill and decided to follow. The ones labeled '4' and '5' stumbled when they reached the crest, tumbling down the other side in a rolling heap. J1 winced but leaped after them.

In the air, something inside her twitched, and J1 heard the quiet slither of metal blades whisper from her back. For a brief brief moment, she felt her body go weightless and her chest flutter. Wings, flight, the ultimate freedom made her internals jitter in excitement, but it could wait, had to wait.

She touched down, letting them fold back into whatever hammer-space sorcery disassemblers had before she rushed over to the still-groaning J4 and J5. "You guys alright? Need a hand?"

J4 shot her an annoyed look before shoving J5 off of her. She rolled to her feet, still unused to her peg legs if her unsteadiness was any hint. "Yes, I am fine."

J5 cringed at the annoyed tone before scrambling to her feet or tried to at least. She managed to slip on nothing a couple times before finding her footing. She gave a nervous salute when she was finally upright. "Yep yep, J5 ready to go!"
J3 plodded up by J1 with a bored expression. "Yeah-yeah, any reason we had to book it like that or was it just general panic?"

J1 shook their head at the dismissive comment, that kind of talk wasn't going to get anyone anywhere. After all, they were all likely in a similar boat. Though, how similar was yet to be seen. J1 glanced over to J2, quirking a pixel-brow in question. J2 grunted as they dusted some snow off their suit blouse.

"Yeah, good reason too. Saw a bundle of UXOs. Looked spent, but you don't wanna risk it with that kinda stuff." she grimaced as she added. "Even saw some sparks, might've been EMP's."

The J's took in the statement for a moment.

Well, it could've been worse. At least Cyn hadn't checked in over the radio or something.

J1 clapped her hands together, drawing the rest of the group's attention. "Ok, so first of all, I'm serial designation J1. My visor is pinging you guys as J2, J3, J4, and J5, are those your names?" She pointed to each drone as she listed off their names. Thankfully, all of them nodded as she spoke. Good, so at least what working tech she did have wasn't trying to lie to her.

"Ok, so–"

"You guys ever seen Murder Drones? Great show." J2's question made J1 stumble in place. She'd wanted to bring that up at some point, but not this soon. What if Cyn was listening? What if the rest weren't isekai victims or whatever this was?

J1 held her breath as she glanced around at the others.

J3 nodded, saying "Yeah, it was alright." Before she crossed her arms.

J5 poked her fingers together as she looked away. "I s-saw it too. I really liked it."

J1 let out her held breath, adding "Yeah, same here. Guess we're all in it knee-high, right?" The rest nodded along with her, J2 chuckling.

However, J4 shook her head. "Never heard of it."

Four out of five wasn't a bad statistic. Considering how calm J4 was being, J1 figured she wasn't exactly a standard personality. Alien then? Or maybe just somebody from a different section of the world? Then again, Murder Drones was more of an internet phenomenon, so she could just be somebody who didn't bother with web spaces.

In any case, maybe they should–

"Hey, any of you guys know an author named Spyder?" J2 was rapidly becoming J1's greatest source of blood (oil?) pressure.

Whatever, better to answer and get this out of the way. They could worry about this properly when they were in a better spot. "Believe it or not, yes, I have, anyone else?" J3 and J5 nodded with confused expressions while J4 crossed their arms as she huffed. "Alright, we can go over the usual 'panic over canon' thing later. We have to get stabilized first."

The sheer odds that four people from the same stupid discord got hit by a cosmically unlikely event was baffling. But that confusion could wait. J1 spread her wings, suppressing a shudder at the feeling, before saying, "I'll try to get a better look. Blizzard will probably keep me blind, but better to check."

The rest nodded as she ascended. The ground quickly disappeared under her, the howling wind whipping her pigtails around. She frowned as one slapped her in the visor, leaving a hairline fracture. With a thought, her hand became a claw and she cut the hair bands loose. Loose hair would flail around, but at least it wouldn't crack her visor.

As she expected, the blizzard made visibility near zilch. With a huff, J1 pulled her wings in, letting herself plummet like a rock. As she neared the ground, she splayed them out, letting the mag-lift tech catch her a few inches off the ground.

She found the rest playing with their wings, though none of them seemed to function right. Some had messed up joints, and others didn't glow. J1 winced at the sight, pitying their lack of flight. She never knew what she was missing being bound to the earth in her past life, but now that she did… She still wanted to go home, but she'd miss the knife-wings.

J1 shook off the train of thought before the doubts could take hold. "Nothing, any of you got ideas on where to head?"

J4 wordlessly pointed a finger at a cracked road that sat at the edge of their visibility. The others hesitated, glancing between one another, but agonizing over every little decision wasn't going to save them. J1 strode forward, beckoning the rest to follow as she said, "We don't have forever, who knows when this cover will clear up?"

J2 and J3 shrugged before following without a word. A trembling J5 nodded, before tripping over a rock and faceplanting. She called out an "I'm ok!" before scrambling after them. J4 rolled her eyes at the antics but didn't comment while she followed too.

When they got to the cracked line of concrete, J1 flipped a coin mentally and veered right. The group settled into an uncomfortable quiet as the blizzard blew harder. J1's sensors didn't ping any damage from the wind or cold, but she didn't know how long that'd last. The oil meter in the corner of her vision was mostly full though, so at the very least they probably had some time before…

She wasn't going to kill people. J1 wasn't V, N, or even J from the show, no, she would not become like them. One, Two, and Five struck her as decent people. They were just first impressions, so it might be inaccurate, but it was all she had for now.

Three and four though? J1 cast a glance over her shoulder at the two stranger members of their group. They were off somehow. Three was a bit of an ass, but that might just be differences in social norms. Four though was a bit more of a wildcard. They didn't have anything on her, not really. J1 doubted they were a spy, Cyn wasn't the type to use those, but who knew if this Copper 9 was the same as the one from canon?

The walk became a blur to J1's memory as the road and snow-filled sky bled together into a continuous smear. She cycled through theory after theory about her squadmates before finally deciding that it was better to wait before making any lasting judgments.

After hours of nothing but plodding along passed them by. J4's eyes sharpened, drawing J1's attention as she pointed, announcing "There's people ahead, shorter than us."

"So workers then?" J4 shrugged at J2's question.

J1's eyes narrowed as she ran her mind through a few scenarios. Attacking them was right out. Killing people was a last resort at the best of times. Besides, If they attacked, nearby worker factions might catch a whiff about it. That'd make getting any allies in the bunker difficult as hell, well it already would be, but murder charges wouldn't help.

If they approached, the workers would probably just run away, again alerting other nearby workers and the bunker. That might even get them in a buzz and alert people from canon.

More and more ideas flitted through her head, but J1 shook most of them away. She waved a hand, saying "I say we tail them for a while. They have to be going somewhere and it'd be better to know than not. Worst comes to worst, we can disappear into the blizzard and hide in the snow for the day."

J4 frowned for a moment, before shrugging, saying "Seems reasonable enough." The rest of the group nodded along.

"Alright, then lay low and keep quiet. They've probably got worse sensors, but better to not risk it." Again they nodded, not offering any input. J1 could feel the weight of the decisions pressing down on her shoulders. She suppressed a sigh at the familiar sensation of having to make every damned choice. Well, at least these people didn't argue like cats in a bag about inane things.

They followed the workers for another several hours, J1 checking her internal chronometer to measure the time. Eventually, the workers came to a split in the road and took the left. Some of the group made to keep following them, but J1 held up a hand.

She glared at the thinning snowstorm and clenched her teeth when a few rays of sun peeked through. She called out "We need to get to shade, now."

"But the storm's got us covered." J3 crossed their arms as they cocked a pixel-brow and added, "Besides, those workers are still moving. I don't know if letting them lose us this early is a good idea."

J1 turned an annoyed look on J3 before answering, "Look up, that blizzard isn't going to last forever, and I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of checking how canon burning in sunlight is for us."

J3 glanced up and their jaw clenched, but they didn't argue any further. J2 nodded as they stepped up beside J1, saying "Yeah, snow around here's deep anyway. Shouldn't be too hard to dig something out." J4 followed J2, not adding anything.

J5 hunched as she gave a small smile, saying "Y-yeah, I think I'd like to stop. If that would be ok with you all."

The five disassemblers spent the next twenty minutes or so digging out a small cave from the seven-foot-deep snow banks. The sun was prickling on all of their haptics by the time they were finished with their hidey hole.

J1 settled down on the floor, sighing in relief as she felt her internals unwind. Her thoughts were fraying at the edges a bit, but she assumed that just meant she needed some rest. The others sat in a circle, some casting nervous glances while others stared off into nothing, likely lost in thought.

J1 considered pulling some of them out of their shells, make small talk, or whatever, but… She yawned before asking "Can you all set up a watch rotation? I need to beat it for a bit–"

Her voice trailed off as her sleep mode activated without input.

J1's world went dark.

-Chap end-​

This work has 20k words commissioned. I will be posting chapters after they've been finished and looked over by a few people involved with the story. The story itself will be roughly based on the progression of events in a ttrpg game that goes by Jorde. You can find the game's discord here.

If you want to commission works from me, you can find me on my own discord here, and feel free to reach out. I welcome more people poking at me to get on with it.

 

[OrderlyDisassembly]

J1's optics flashed on in a blink. She brought a hand to her visor, suppressing a groan as she sat up. The other J's were fast asleep still, each sprawled out on the snowy ground. All except one, J5 caught her attention with a wave and sheepish smile. "I-I drew last watch. You can go back to sleep."

Her servos whined as J1 clenched them. They didn't feel cold, didn't strain, or ache. They weren't flesh, she wasn't flesh. It was real, she wasn't– You aren't out of the woods. Focus.

J1 cycled air before shaking her head. "No, I think I slept enough. Go ahead and catch some rest before sundown."

J5 hesitated, fingers twitching against each other before she slid prone. After a moment, her trembling frame and shivering tail went still. J1 felt a small warmth in her core as she spotted J5's expression relax into a peaceful smile.

J1 cast a glance at the entrance of their squad's little dugout. The sun was bleeding deep orange already, so she had an hour or two by the looks of it.

Well, she had time, best to do something with it. She looked down at her hands, watching them twitch before swapping to a gun. She waved it around, feeling out the internals without firing the thing. She'd probably practice with it on their next trek if she had the chance. Then she swapped through her other options: a pair of claws, swords, and that was it.

J1 frowned as she cast a glance over her shoulder at her tail. God, that felt weird. She shook the thought away as she brought up a few damage reports and winced. Nanites were shot apparently, both the rapid healing ones and the acid.

Well, it could've been worse, at least she still had some internal functions that'd patch her back up. It would just take hours.

She suppressed a scowl before standing to work through her motor-functions.

She spent the rest of the daytime finding her ranges of motion and thinking of the team's next move. She'd have them all weigh in of course, but it was best if somebody came to the table with some ideas off the bat.

J1 cycled air as she started mulling over their situation.

First, they needed oil. Not just a short-term fix, they needed a steady supply. If they couldn't find one, then they were as good as dead. The easiest option would honestly be to butter up the bunker and get them to bankroll their upkeep. Which would honestly probably be easier said than done.

Khan would probably be too terrified to make any deals. Uzi might be a help, but she could also just assume the worst and gum up any kind of negotiation. Half the reason she took the chance with N in canon was that she really didn't have any other choice when her totally-a-railgunTM​ didn't put him down for good.

J1 grimaced at the whole situation before shaking it from her head. There were going to be so many problems getting in good with the bunker, but it still beat trying to live off of discarded worker corpses and vehicle husks. Which was plan B, but it was plan B for several reasons.

Second, they needed repairs. With Cyn, J, and who-knows-what-else coming, they needed to be in tip-top shape to deal with it. If the bunker was helping them, then maybe the drones there could give them a tune up. It was a bit of a stretch but it was all J1 really had. Unless one of her teammates was a genius scientist on earth.

The image of Four and Five tangled in a heap made J1 shake the idea away.

It was still possible, she decided, but really not worth banking on.

Third, they needed to find Cabin Fever Labs. Or rather, they needed to find the keybug then fly up a bit. The thing was a massive crater in the show, it couldn't be that hard to spot if you had a high enough vantage point. As for the keybug, the bugger might give them some issues, but they knew where to look. Roughly anyhow. They just needed to find the cabin from episode 4, and things would work out from there.

J1 sighed as she plopped back down onto the ice.

After that, Cyn.

So much crap to deal with. She rubbed her visor before she glanced at the entrance again.

The light was a deep purple now.

She nodded, calling out; "Alright guys, time to get up."

Two's and Three's visors immediately blinked on. They groaned as they pulled themselves to their feet. Four murmured something about "five more minutes" while Five curled into a ball.

J1 chuckled as she nudged the two on the ground. "I get it you two, but we gotta keep moving. Who knows how much time we have left?"

After a bit more cajoling, the last two stumbled upright with the rest. J1 looked them over. Two and Three seemed mostly awake, though she could see Two practically vibrating in place. It wasn't much at the moment, just a twitching wrist here and a tap tap tap of the leg there. Three sat perfectly still though, so hopefully she wasn't zoned out too badly.

Four and Five seemed to be only half awake, but that was probably enough at the moment. They were disassemblers, and there wasn't much a DD couldn't handle.

J1 clapped her hands together, drawing the group's attention before smiling. "Alright everyone, we really should get moving sooner rather than later. I was thinking we'd head north like the workers did last morning. Any objections?"

The rest shook their heads. With their path confirmed, J1 climbed out of the dug out ahead of the group. She took a moment to scan the surroundings for anything out of place before moving aside the entrance. The snowstorm hadn't returned yet, so she had a clear view of the rolling snowy hills that went in pretty much every direction.

The road had a thick layer of snow, but the dips on either side of it made finding the edges of the pavement easy enough. Though something was off, J1 couldn't quite put her finger on what though.

She kept an eye on the others through her sensor band as she walked over. The side had a bit of a drift built up on it, but it wasn't too hard to clamber over it. When she glared down at the road proper, she froze at the sight of tire tracks. She stepped closer, kneeling down beside it.

The tracks were dug in deep, deeper than the prints she left. Though the fact it was about as wide as her arm was long probably explained it. She frowned before calling out. "Mind coming over here everyone? I think we might have a problem."

The others gave various affirmatives of some sort or another before heading over themselves. Four stared blankly at the tire-tracks, not emoting one way or another. Five nibbled on her knuckle at the sight while Two examined them from every angle she could.

J1 noticed that Three just crossed her arms with a nod. "Know what we're looking at?"

Three shrugged, saying "Looks like tires. Big ones."

J1 appreciated a brief moment of kinship with Four as they both facepalmed. "Anything beyond the obvious?"

Three squinted for a moment before shrugging. "Well I heard a lot of rumbling on my watch. Only lasted for like a minute." She scratched the side of her chin as she added. "Made my teeth chatter, but didn't seem dangerous."

"Dude, it was shaking your teeth by moving through snow. That's not small." Two called over her shoulder. She whistled, saying "Yeah, these treads are def snow tires. I'd say whatever this was it's in the same weight-class as a damned semi. Seems to only be a six-wheeler though."

J1 nodded at that, though frowned before thinking to ask, "How can you tell how many wheels it has?"
"Easy, people, drones too it looks like, drift when they drive." Two pointed down the road a ways, adding, "And then they gotta correct. See? Three track-lines, six-wheeler."

One nodded, feeling a little less intelligent for asking. But better to ask and learn than be quiet and be ignorant. "Alright, can you tell which way it went."

Two shrugged. "Beats the hell outta me. Treads kinda look like they're heading south, but they might just have different patterns around here than on Earth."

Three cut in, saying "It sounded like they were going that way." Before she pointed South down the road.

Ok, so opposite way they were going, lovely. J1 nodded before setting off north, waving her comrades after her. Four, Five, and Three immediately went, though Two took another few moments to stare at the tracks before following as well.

After a few minutes of walking J1 spoke up, saying. "We can't keep going without a plan guys. Sooner or later, we need to be proactive."

Three cocked a pixel-brow. "Think it's a bit early for plans, boss. Got a few problems."

The rest stared at J1 as she shook her head. "Yeah, we do, but solving them for a good amount of time isn't going to be easy. First problem is oil."

"We can siphon plenty from wrecks." Two glanced up and down the road, finger tapping against her arms. "Well, not yet. But the show had a city by the bunker. Shouldn't be too hard to find something laying around."

"Which would be fine for a week or two, maybe a month at most." J1 planted a fist in her palm as she continued, "but that would eat a lot of our time. Time we're going to need when we start looking for the patch."

Everyone but Four listened intently, some nodding and others shrugging. Four spoke up, "Could someone explain what the 'patch' is and why we need it so badly?" She drew her pixel brows into a frown.

Right, J1 forgot that they had an odd one out. Three answered, saying "Basically, it keeps robo-Cthulhu out of our heads."

Four blinked at that before slowly rotating her head toward Three without shifting her shoulders. Three shrugged at Four's wide-eyed expression. "There's more to it but that's the short answer."

"And the long one?"

J1 sighed at Four's question before cutting in. "The long one can wait until we find another rest stop. We shouldn't risk someone listening in." She knocked on her damaged sensor band before adding, "we don't have the functions to guarantee otherwise."

Three shrugged, deciding to lock their visor ahead. Seeing that there wasn't more info to be had, Four's eyes unfocused, but Five stepped closer to attempt to engage the distant bot. J1 nodded at the sight. They really ought to get to know each other better. Especially since they were going to be in it for the long haul.

J1 gave the surroundings a quick sweep. Aside from her team, there wasn't much besides the rolling snowy hills on either side of the road. A flash of color on the horizon caught her eye, and she zoomed in. J1 stumbled at the sudden change in her sight, but reoriented before she could fall.

Two shot her a glance. "You alright, One?" Her eyes narrowed in concern.

"Yeah, just stumbled on a feature." J1 shook her head before locking onto the color that threw her off. Brown? No, not all the way, it was bleached, but… "Huh, guess we found the forest."

The rest perked up at that. After a few words, they agreed to pick up the pace. The next few hours passed without anything of note happening. Aside from Five finding the strangest of things to trip over. J1 worried for the drone, if that happened in combat… Well, they were Disassemblers, Five should still be fine.

The trees loomed over the snow-fields like organic monoliths, each nearly a hundred feet tall and a dozen feet thick. J1 stared at the monuments to what came before, remembering greener places. She suppressed the memory with a shake of the head. Now wasn't the time.

As they drew closer her visor picked out figures in the trees–no, on the trees? She squinted at them, trying to get her visor to focus, but the tech fought with her over what part needed to be cleared. Five gasped, and Two grunted, pulling J1's attention.

Five's eyes were hollow, and the others didn't fare much better. Even Four's pixels trembled at the edges. "My visor is glitching a bit, mind filling me in?"

"Corpses." Two's answer threw J1 off for a moment.

She turned to scan the figures again and grimaced as her optics finally focused correctly. She saw a trio of disassembler frames, visors fully dark and chassis' mangled. Their heads tilted downward as if in remorse, and their arms spread wide, hands splayed open.

J1 hadn't noticed that they'd all stopped moving.

Two's gaze fell from the trees, and her eyes glitched for a moment. "Well." She petered off after the singular word, voice wavering at the edges. Her arms wrapped around herself as her fingers started tapping away again.

"Jesus." Three's eyes hollowed as her pixels tinged green.

J1 grimaced at the gruesome sight. A warning glared back at the group, the crusty oil the script was written giving it a sense of finality. Five slipped behind Four who read the sign aloud. "Warning for you can-openers, we aren't F%$#&ing toasters. Sincerely, Outpost Two." She frowned as she added, "They sound nice."

A few moments pass in silence. J1 noticed Two looking away from the sign. Unfortunately her teammate had landed on staring at the corpses instead. Though, her pixels were solid again, so, "You thinking of nabbing something?"

"Yeah, waste not want not and all that, right?" Two stepped forward, digging into the tree with her claws to climb up to her goal.

J1 nodded, internally wincing at the thought. It wasn't doing the dead any good, and the drones up there probably killed a lot of workers. Something J1 and her team would avoid.

Two's examination took a minute or two. Near the end, she muttered, "kinda reminds me of the cartels. Damned barbaric, but they usually left the bodies better off than this."

"We were purpose–built to genocide them. Can't blame them too much, right?" J1 wished she believed the second part. Her internals twisted at the sight, but she pushed the feeling down. Not the time.

Three stared blankly at the corpses. "You were saying something about getting friendly with the workers earlier, right?"

"Yes, and we should still try. It probably won't be easy but–"

Three cut her short with a flat look before waving a hand at the sign. "That's a bit of an understatement."

Four nodded at the statement, but Two gave a sharp laugh, adding, "Yeah, do they look like the type to talk things out?"

J1 cycled air as she put a hand to her visor. "Look, our chances with whoever Outpost 2 is are probably not great." She straightened before gesturing ahead. "But we have to try. Every chance we don't take is time we lose, time that we're going to need when Cyn comes knocking."

The rest looked between themselves before each muttered their own agreement in one form or another. J1 looks over her shoulder, her wings sprouting from her back. "I'll try figuring out where the Outpost is. The road should lead me to it more or less." She turned and crouched before adding, "Stick to the area, please, I'll be back in a while."

She didn't hear any responses as she flew off. She wove between the trees with little effort, feeling lighter in the chest at the feeling of freedom. J1 allowed herself a small smile as she scanned the world below her. The road ran straight as an arrow, and seemed to have fewer cracks than the one they walked before sleeping through the day.

After a couple hours of slow flying, J1 spotted a large shape poking between the trees. It was gargantuan, grey, and smoke puffed from the top in large black clouds. J1 considered her next move for a moment. She could head straight back to the others and approach the place as a group, or she could take a closer look to make sure this was what they were after.

J1 leaned to the side, landing on the side of a tree. She felt her legs dig into the wood a bit, and swapped her hands for claws to latch on. She leapt from tree to tree, flattening herself against the trunks after each jump.

The whole time she moved, J1's core tightened further and further. Every motion was a chance to be spotted. What would happen if the workers knew they had disassemblers in the area? Would they run for the hills? Would they slam down whatever doors they had like the bunker? Would they try replicating whatever they did to the disassemblers they'd strung up?

The trees almost seemed to part for J1 when she reached the edge of the forest. Every tree within a couple hundred feet of the Outpost had been cut down, even their stumps being removed. The Outpost itself looked like a single giant concrete brick. Except she saw small turrets poking up at the corners.

Zooming in revealed large guns mounted inside the small towers, they were ominous multi-barreled things. Strange boxy workers sat behind the weapons, dim eyes barely reaching J1's optics.

That was not normal.

J1 retreated behind her cover and began the agonizing process of tree-hopping away.

Or maybe that outpost was normal and the bunker was the odd one out. Either way, the others needed to know.

Her wings slithered from her back, and the trees turned to a blur as she picked up the pace. J1 could hear the ticking of a clock in her audials, but she pushed the phantom sound down. Now wasn't the time.

Two was the first to spot her. She said something to the others and the rest all turned to J1's approaching form. She tilted into a dive, landing with a soft 'thud' and a plume of snow. "There's been a development."

Three crossed her arms and Two stared expectantly, hands curling together like a praying mantis.

J1 looked between the others of the group, thinking that Two, Three, and Four would handle it fine. But Five, after how spooked she got at the sign? J1 didn't blame her for it, but things were going to get worse before they got better.

"The workers are armed." Two blinked at J1's statement.

After a moment, the twitching drone chuckled, gesturing to Four, "yeah, found out the hard way."

J1 turned to scan Four. The drone shifted in place, expression drawing into a frown at the scrutiny. Her hands were sparking, fingers slightly out of their sockets. J1 traced her plate in her visor and suppressed a wince at the bent casing. She asked, "What happened? Did you guys get attacked?"

Four's frown deepened, but Two answered "Nope. IED. She went digging in one of the corpses and palmed a grenade."

Four looked to the side, muttering, "How was I supposed to know?"

"Oh, I'm not blaming ya, Four, I probably would've ate shit too." Two patted the damaged disassembler on the shoulder before turning back to J1. "So yeah, workers being more killy is old news."

J1 nodded with a grim expression, her hands balling up as she turned back toward the Outpost. "Regardless, we need to get moving. The longer we wait, the less time we'll have afterward to find shelter. No matter how well diplomacy goes, I doubt anyone here wants to have another close call if we can help it."

"Well, I'm not gonna be the one jumping face first into a pile of bullets, grenades, or whatever other crap they're gonna lob at us." Two set their hands on their hips.

"And I wasn't asking you to. It's my idea, so I'll do the dangerous part." J1 cycled air before continuing. "Guys, what other options are there really? Doing the job we were built to? Scavenging cars like metal vultures? Starving? We need a steady source of oil, and those workers, however unfriendly and-or murderous they may be, are our best shot at one."

Two maintained a frown, "Still not a hundred on the idea, with how they strung up those bodies, but if you're gonna be talking for us..." She grimaced as she grabbed her arm. "...Yeah, I won't make ya do that on your own.

Three shrugged. "Maybe they just got a bit inspired by Vlad the Impaler. Dude knew how to get a 'point' across." her tail flicked to the side in amusement.
J1 shot her a flat look, "That was awful."

"Must come with being a dad." Three shrugged before crossing her arms. The rest of the squad glanced to each other before deciding that the implications behind that could wait.
"Alright, enough waffling about, I'm getting this over with." J1 rolled her shoulders as she took the first step.

The rest of the group nodded at the sentiment and followed. J1 led them back toward the Outpost. A silence hung over them the whole while. Along the way, J1 felt her internals coiling tighter and tighter. Would the workers attack on sight? Would they hole up? If they did either, then all the squad could do is retreat, and then they were back to square one.

Sure, their tanks were mostly full as far as they could tell, but how long would that last? The meter moved over the course of the day, so it was hard to measure just how fast their time was bleeding away.

When they were a few minutes out from their goal, something struck J1.

The forest was silent.

Her haptics picked up a faint breeze, the gravel and snow crunched beneath the squad's pegs, but there wasn't anything else. No chirps, no chatter, not even the odd creak of a leaning tree. It didn't really startle J1.

She knew this planet was dead.

There weren't any humans left.

She didn't count anymore

Not the time.

J1 wrenched her mind away from the impending spiral, recentering with a deep breath. With her thoughts settled for the moment, she called out, "Alright guys, we're getting close. Anybody got anything to say before we get into this?"

Three through Five shook their heads. Two glanced around, fingers rubbing her palm as she said. "We should probably find some white cloth or whatever."

J1 pulled a cleaning cloth from a pocket in her suit-blouse. "Picked it up from the shuttle before we left, why–Oh, white flag." She face-palmed before turning to scan the area for a suitable pole to tie the cloth around.

After a couple of minutes of fiddling with it, J1 got the parley 'flag' assembled. She took a deep breath before waving to the rest of the squad. "Ok guys, everyone ready?"
J1 wove through the trees like a ghost, pegs practically gliding through the snow. She slowed as she strode out of the treeline. The flag waved pitifully in the wind, flopping like the rag it is. J1's peripherals picked out the others hiding high in the branches, and behind the trunks.

She could only hope the drones of the Outpost didn't take it as a threat.

…

Should she get closer? No, probably not. She opened her mouth to shout, but cut short when the eyes of a boxy drone in one of the towers locked onto her. It leaped to the mounted weapon, swiveling the turret toward her.

J1 yelped, waving the 'flag' higher as she shouted. "Wait, don't shoot, we're not here to fight!"

The gun's barrel spun, the tubes blurring together. J1's eyes hollowed as she braced to jump to cover. Yet no bullets came. Each second felt like an hour to her sensibilities, but J1 fought to keep composure. Things were fine, she was fine, this was fine, all she had to do was keep it together until someone more interested in talking than murdering came up.

The boxy drone leaned to the side, talking into a receiver in his turret. "If you do not intend hostilities, maintain position, we have a negotiator on the way."

J1 suppressed a grin at the message: she didn't want them getting the wrong message. She shouted back, "Good to hear, we're good to sit tight for a bit."

She didn't get a response. J1 sighed, glancing around at her teammates. Three and Five sat huddled behind a pair of trees while Two and Four had opted to claw their way up into the branches a ways. With how dark it was, and how large the trunks were, J1 figured they'd blend in fine. Though thermal's would still give them away.

As the minutes ticked by, J1 would cast glances over her shoulder every once in a while. Most of the others were sitting just fine, though Four seemed… elsewhere at the moment. J1 sent a short ping over the comms, startling the spaced-out disassembler into the present. A quick glare got a sheepish hunch in return.

J1 shook her head before facing forward again.

Time passed, J1 caught Four zoning out again. She sighed, deciding that trying to keep her alert was going to be more effort than it was worth. Four disassemblers should be enough to handle pretty much anything.

If Two stopped miming tossing that rock at her. J1 shot the gremlin a look which got a shrug and chuckle in return.

God help her, she was going to be dead before the negotiator showed up. Before J1 could begin cycling through her squad again, a loud keening sounded out from the outpost.. After a moment, a worker called through the speaker. "Just what in Sam hell is goin on out there? Who's the damned varmints hiding in the trees like a bunch of slow-thinkin' robo-coons?"

J1 suppressed a groan. This was going to be so pleasant she could tell. "Those would be my squadmates. We're here to talk, not fight. They're just hear to pull me out if things go badly." She shouted back.

After a few moments hesitance, the worker called back. "Fine, ain't like I got anythin' better ta do than flap lips with yall. Jus' don't step any closer or we'll give ya more holes than a cleanin' sponge."

J1 cycled air. All she had to do was get their foot in the door. Show them that the squad was different, that they could be trusted. They could go from there. "I am fully aware of our model's reputation for killing workers, but something that might not be as well known is that a big part of why we do so is that we need to drink oil."

The negotiator cut in, saying, "Need? We thought y'all did that for the kicks. Saw enough cacklers over cams."

"Well, my squad does not. Killing goes against a good number of our morals so we would love to find a way to avoid it while still meeting our oil requirements." J1's grip on her makeshift flag tightened as she added, "And from how much smoke your outpost is blowing. I'm guessing you guys have a good amount of oil in reserve. I believe both of us could come out ahead should we work something out."
It takes a bit for the negotiator to respond. Though she preludes her answer with a long peel of laughter. "Hot damn, a real entrepreneur, aint ya? and here I thought yall were only good for scrapping and bein' scrapped! Learnin' new things e'ry day I say! Yer lucky ya ran into us first, Genobots, Ol' Torvechav down south woulda had a kill squad houndin' ya instead of using his damned audials."

Rude, but J1 could live with that. She forced a smile onto her face: they probably couldn't tell, but it didn't cost her anything. "Well, I guess I'll have to thank Lady Luck next time I meet her."

However, the negotiator's response spiked J1's internal pressure. "But, you'll have ta excuse a bit o' caution, Can Opener. Don't wanna let a snake inta the coup, ya feel?"

"That is perfectly reasonable, sensible even. However, if it counts for anything, you got a few refugees a night or two ago, right? Well, we spotted them a ways out and tailed them through the blizzard. If we were 'snakes' they probably wouldn't be safe in your walls, would they?" Being antagonistic wasn't desirable by J1's measure, but she also couldn't afford to accept their current perception.

Sure, the outpost might work with monsters once, twice, or even for an extended period, but they'd never let the squad get comfortable enough to do anything of worth. They'd become a mercenary band to keep as close to starving as possible.

J1 wouldn't allow that.

"Yeah, we got that sad gaggle, but it wouldn't be the first time yer kind got crafty with us worker folk." J1's jaw clenched at the statement. She got the paranoia, she really did, but the squad weren't monsters. She hoped that the workers would see the truth of it soon enough. The negotiator continued, "But the council would throw a fit if I let y'all in on a hunch. One good thing don't weigh out thirty years of dead drones."

J1 winced at the last statement. "Well, we don't need to be let in right away. Maybe we could do a few things for you out here? All we really need sooner than later is oil."

A loud creak echoed from behind her, and J1 spun her head to the noise. She spotted Three taking in a breath to say something. Two, annoyed eyes on visor and sizable rock in hand, wound their arm back and let loose.

The day wasn't even half over and J1 was already through with it.

The rock struck Three on the shoulder, ricocheting off her shoulder like a makeshift bullet, and J1 had no time to react to the stone 'rock'eted into her visor. She groaned from both the impact and the pun that lodged in her head.

The silence that followed was painful.

Then the negotiator erupted into cackling laughter. "Oh Lordy yall are a whole damned circus." After a few more chuckles, and a bit of plotting on J1's part, they continued. "Tell ya what, there's a crate o' doohickeys and thingymajigs the techys left behind back at Outpost 1 after the place got flattened. Find it, bring it back, then we'll talk. If it aint there, find somethin' worth the power this damned speaker uses."

Ok, J1 could work with that. "Sounds good, would you mind pointing us towards it, we don't have a map on our persons."

"Really? Yall must be real desperate then, hah, up Northwest. Now git, I got things to be doin'."

Didn't she say something about being free earlier? J1 sighed, shaking her head before striding past the tree line. She shot Two and Three glares as she passed their hiding spots.

"We're going to have a little talk about what just happened."

The two guilty Disassemblers hesitantly shimmied down the tree, Three seemed mostly unbothered while Two held a sheepish smile.

Somebody here was going to be the death of her, J1 was sure of it.

Chap end.

-Chap end-​

This work has 20k words commissioned. I will be posting chapters after they've been finished and looked over by a few people involved with the story. The story itself will be roughly based on the progression of events in a ttrpg game that goes by Jorde. You can find the game's discord here.

If you want to commission works from me, you can find me on my own discord here, and feel free to reach out. I welcome more people poking at me to get on with it.