Aksel had a vague idea that this was the place that Yve had described to him before when she had passed through the holographic door when they had last stationed here in the forest.
To confirm this fact he turned to face her only to find her looking at the drones in an alarming manner. It was all the affirmation that he needed but besides Yve the others around them were standing in an unexcited stupor as they looked up at the drones flying around like bees.
"Hey, it's alright," he said trying to make her feel better even though inside he, himself felt a little unnerved by the sight.
If one drone had been enough to terrorize him on his introduction to the city of Aquilo then these many flying machines were going to be a major detriment to his mental and physical health.
Renee who had her dark eyes barely looking round happened to glance at the two huddled figures behind them. She had been amused by this new character introduction in her life right from the very beginning when she had seen him jump down from the crate dangling on the verge of harm and danger.
She found her chance of mischief again and with a teasing smile she asked, "Don't tell me you are scared?"
Her words garnered attention from all of the others around them as well making the two newbies stand up straighter and slightly apart.
Mort who noticed Renee throwing her vicious words at his new friend immediately came to his rescue as he explained, "These drones are different from the drones back in the city. These drones are worker drones that are functioned and assigned with different kinds of jobs to work in this factory.
The building he pointed to was a colossal rectangle box placed in what appeared to be the center of this holographic secret base. It had vast windows lining its walls on all sides running in a sequence all around it climbing all the way up making it visible that it had at least seven such work floors.
The rest of it didn't give away anything else as the entirety of it was covered in climbers of heavy green vines running all the way from the top to the bottom of the building. Aksel didn't understand if this was done purposely or was the cause of nature but the greenery cloaked the building completely in its wake.
A few worker drones that were hovering by the windows trimming the edges into perfect clear square outlines could be seen and Aksel marveled at the world of the drones away from them.
"So you mean they won't recognize us?" Aksel asked trying to be sure of the information and receiving an affirmative grunt from Grant he could feel relief unknotting his tense nerves.
"But you need to be careful as to not touch them," Mort said following the others as they moved forward to start with their business.
Aksel and Yve had fallen in step with him on either side of him as they tried to grasp everything that they could know about here from him.
"What would happen if we touch them?" Yve asked looking at a drone flying by them with a basket full of oranges.
"There are farm animals on this part of the land on the other side of this base so if you touch one of the drones it would first scan you to check if you were a farm animal if it found that you had the branding code on you then you would be sent back by them safely to your designated spot but since you wouldn't have one it would term you a wild beast and to ensure the safety of this place it would kill you."
The words in it weren't as surprising as the way they had been told. They wondered how he didn't term this as anything to worry about when the result of even a small wrong move was immediate death.
"It isn't really that different from the drones back home, in the end, they all just kill us," Yve muttered bitterly as she looked at another passing drone this time noticing it carrying a sack of what looked like potatoes to her.
"True," Mort laughed without a hint of worry, and then continuing he waved a hand in the air and just missed touching a drone by a few centimeters as he said, "But at least they aren't chasing after us or reporting us to the system."
'Are you sure?' Aksel wanted to ask him but as he watched him playing around with drones by dodging them animatedly he decided against it. It must be safe if Krentis had let so many of the Rues to come here out in the open.
He wondered if someone had died here to have gained this information, death didn't scare him as much but he had a stronger will to live, and therefore brushing away thoughts of death he went on to further ask questions about this place.
"So what is this place?" Aksel asked looking over at Mort who carefully picked out a few berries from a passing drone's basket and munched on them. This action came as a little shock to Aksel who couldn't help but stare at him. This look of astonishment was thought by Mort a want for the fruit in his hand and giving two to each of them he smiled making Aksel believe that this guy was probably either really dumb or fearless to be this easygoing about his actions.
"To put it quite simply this place is the food factory of Novus. For some reason, if you might have noticed then the branded don't ever farm or worry about the availability of food. Even if you try to remember you will find that no proper memory regarding the dispatch of this raw material, food items like vegetables or fruits are ever mentioned," he said making Aksel nod his head in agreement.
"We don't know why they aren't allowed to partake in the growing of crops and rearing of domestic animals, along with the collection and packaging of these raw materials to be sent to the city, but they are all managed by the drones in this area," Mort explained munching on the berries as they walked ahead.
Aksel wondered why and as he thought about this, it made sense to him now when he remembered the boxes that they had witnessed being loaded into the truck that night, and the giant crate that they had hitched their ride on might also have been coming from here.
At least they had solved the mystery behind the appearance of the branded people in the forest and that was a weight lifted off his curious mind.
"My theory is," he said getting back to their earlier musings, "That the system might have deemed it unnecessary for the human bred to work for anything so insignificant yet necessary as food that can be managed by machines. To therefore use as better in places that they might have needed our slavery more?"
Yve took his words to her mind thinking on them on a solemn note but Mort merely shrugged and said, "Who knows and well who cares as long as we get the food?"
When Aksel felt the others slowing down their pace he noticed a single large door in the middle facing them and was the only entry visible to them but it wasn't in use by the drones as they flew in and out of the building through the windows itself.
It again made him curious and he was about to ask one of them the reason behind this when he saw the Rues, whom he had met yesterday, who he had learned on the way was called Jace, step forward and pull the sleeves of his t-shirt up revealing a glowing mark on his hand.
For a second Aksel couldn't believe what he was seeing but when he felt Yve grip on his hand in a vice-like disturbed stance he knew his eyes weren't' just seeing things.
Jace had a brand on his hand the one that belonged to the Branding System.