|| Chapter 1: The Start Of It All ||
The sound of a harsh blizzard blowing outside whistled throughout the deserted yet destroyed buildings in the abandoned city. Even from a far distance, tossed-over vehicles littered the streets as frozen human skeletons were seen. It was a frozen apocalyptic wasteland on this planet. The reason is all because of humans 'accidentally' blowing up the planet's core when an error appeared in the systems.
The only life form that survived the core explosion was the worker drones that humanity created to mine copper from the planet. However, they were nowhere to be seen – alive, that is. In the middle of the city, a tall spiral of worker drone corpses decorated the streets. In between the scattered vehicles, a tall figure trudged through the snow with their head lowered.
Large puffs of breath escaped the sides of the figure's mouth and the half-gas mask lit up with a bright orange colour with a 'ting'. The figure was dressed in dark and heavy winter clothes; a thick coat with a fur collar, a turtleneck, cargo pants, and military boots. His black hair flew in every direction of the harsh winds while his sharp charcoal-coloured eyes were squinting, trying their best to hold back tears that wanted to wet them. The ravenette seemed to be around his twenties and was quite muscular-looking, even under the layers of clothing.
In all honesty, he has no fucking idea how he survived the planet's core explosion, especially when all the humans in the cryonics perished from the disaster, so how in the hell did he survive? It's been at least a decade ever since the explosion and he woke up in one of the cryonics, discovering that he was the sole human survivor. At this discovery, he had countless mental breakdowns.
His father was a scientist, obsessed with how AI developed so quickly and accomplished so many challenges for mankind. It was no surprise that his father started to experiment with AI components. The ravenette was forced into a cryonic by his father and fell into a dreamless slumber for a decade. It was fortunate that the cryonic supplied him with enough nutrients and water to keep his body healthy. He was grateful that his mother, who was in the military, constantly taught him survival methods and showed him how to handle firearms.
"Notice: The temperature has fallen below -96°C," A robotic voice that had a Korean woman's accent spoke from the earpiece. A groan left the ravenete's mouth when the voice added in a nagging tone, "It is advised to find shelter and recover health before continuing in temperature below -96°C. New shelters are 156 kilometres away, southeast of your current location."
"That's way too far for me on foot," He snarled with furrowed brows and came to a stop. His torso sagged a bit when he repositioned the heavy military duffle bag on his shoulder and slowly glanced at the sniper rifle on his other shoulder. The scope and barrel glimmered in the moonlight that shone from the two moons in the night sky. His gaze flickered around for a building to rest in and found one close by. However, before he could move his feet, the earpiece alerted him, "Alert: Unknown flying object has been detected. Warning: Detected unknown flying object's distance is decreasing to your current location."
Immediately, he sprinted towards his destination and slid himself into a laying position, tossing his duffle bag in front of him before placing his rifle on top of it. "What horrible fucking timing…" He mumbled, pushing the magazine into its rightful place and pulling the bolt back before pushing forward, successfully loading the rifle. He placed his cheek against the cheekpiece of the handle and securely pushed the butt pad into his shoulder. Patiently, he waited for the fret to appear and looked through the scope.
"Come on now," He muttered with anticipation and nervously grinned when something landed on the spot that he was in earlier. However, his grin turned into a startled frown and his eyes widened by a fraction. "Warning: Detecting threat, less than 274 yards from current location," The robotic voice stated and he almost cursed in horror. The reason why he was so startled was that the 'threat' was a tallish woman.
She had silver hair in a bob-cut style, round golden cat-like eyes, and pale skin. From what he could see, she was dressed in a white pantless-and-sleeveless body suit with a black short-sleeved puffy jacket. There was a yellow armband stitched into the left sleeve of the jacket and her legs were covered by thigh-high boots. On top of her head was a headband with five yellow glowing lights and a stinger swung from her tailbone.
She may look human at first, however, the only way he knew that she wasn't one was because of the blade-like claws sprouting from her wrists, the blade-like wings on her back and the stinger hanging from her tailbone. "That's a fucking murder drone…!" He softly cursed and his skin crawled with goosebumps while his heartbeat was thundering inside his ears.
While he was having a nervous breakdown, the female drone was looking around with a deep frown. "V! What are you doing?" A voice called out to the female drone, who paid no mind to the person that landed next to her. The voice belonged to another female drone, who had longish silver hair in pigtails, slightly sharper golden cat-like eyes, pale skin, and was dressed in a black one-piece office outfit with knee-high boots.
"We have patrolling to do, you know!" The pigtailed drone reminded her with a pissed-off expression and glared at her when she didn't respond. "What's up with you? Did you see something weird or what?" She asked, placing her claws onto her hips with a raised brow. V answered her with a frown, "…I saw something walk down here and thought that it was a Worker Drone, but, I can't smell its oil at all."
V's gaze fell onto the footsteps that disappeared in the snow, gesturing to them with her index finger, "Not to mention the footsteps just randomly stop there. It's too weird, J." While they were conversing with each other, the ravenette gritted his teeth and took a deep breath as he aimed at V's head. 'Calm down,' He reminded himself and his gaze grew cold when his concentration intensified, 'You have four escape routes if everything goes to shit.' Alas, luck wasn't on his side when his mask 'tinged' and caught the drones' attention.
"Goddamnit," He dryly laughed when his cover got blown and he quickly pulled the trigger. It was fortunate that the recoil of the rifle barely touched his shoulder. The sound of a gunshot echoed while the bullet sliced the air and entered V's skull. Her entire head exploded with glowing yellow liquid gushing out of the wound as she collapsed to her knees. When he realized that the second drone was startled and caught off guard, he didn't waste any time and reloaded the rifle.
A second shot went off and was about to reach its target, however, the drone deflected it with her blades. 'Time to run,' He thought, hurriedly getting to his feet and swinging the duffle bag over his shoulder before running deeper into the building. "What the hell was that?!" J screeched as she quickly glanced at V's twitching body, which slowly starting to regenerate itself.
Hurriedly, she lunged towards the spot where the gunshots came from and slashed it, only to find no one there. She smirked to herself when she heard footsteps close by and chased after them. Meanwhile, the ravenette rushed up the damaged stairs, getting out of breath with sweat dripping down his face. His heart thumped loudly when he noticed J jumping up the stairs and walls.
He stopped at the third floor of the building and stood in front of a gigantic window with the moonlight being the only source of light. J was getting giddy at the thought of catching the unknown threat and leapt from the railings towards the third floor, seeing the shadowy outline of a figure. "Ah?" Was the only sound that came out of her mouth when she appeared in front of him.
Her eyes widened when she saw his features and her claws were about to touch him. "Fuck off, you piece of AI shit," He sneered at her in a low voice and his eyes had a murderous glare. He aimed the barrel of the rifle between her eyes and pulled the trigger. Her head cocked back as the bullet went through her skull while her claws twitched and her body slumped forward. The tip of her claws got caught in the front of his jacket and tore it when she fell to the floor.
Fluff poured from the tears of the jacket and J's glitchy eyes stared at the man, who was huffing with exhaustion. Quickly, he opened the bolt and reloaded it again. With one last glare, he sprinted down the stairwell, knowing that it wasn't over. His prediction was proven right when V appeared in front of him on the second floor's stairwell. "Found you!" She yelled with a pissed-off expression while her claws were about to slice his head off. "I could say the same!" He responded as he barely dodged the blades and aimed the rifle towards her forehead, pulling the trigger.
Alas, she cocked her head to the side to dodge it. 'Plan B then!' He gritted his teeth and slammed the back of the butt pad against her chin, catching her off guard for a second. "Argh!" She groaned, stumbling back and he took that as an opportunity to escape. He grabbed the railings next to him and jumped down to the first floor. Just as he was about to land on the ground, he skillfully snatched the railing next to him and clenched his jaw when he felt a stinging pain in his shoulder.
When he noted that he slowed his fall, he let go of the railing and safely landed on the ground. The moment his feet touched the ground, he bolted out of there with his remaining energy. As he fled from the building, J got back onto her feet and groaned with her eyes glitching, hinting that her system software was rebooting itself. "J! You all right?" V asked from the second floor with a pained expression.
She responded with a slightly glitchy voice, "Y-Yeah, I'm f-fine…!" How was this possible? How is there a human on Copper 9? 'I need to report this to Corporate immediately!' J thought with a scowl and recalled the features of the human male. She paused when the strange sunset colour of his eyes popped up. "Can human eyes have colours like that?" She mumbled with furrowed brows and suspiciously hummed as her system finally rebooted itself.
Meanwhile, the ravenette stumbled into a building's cafeteria-looking room and leaned against the wall, completely exhausted. "Thank god…" He spat out, sliding down against the wall and making sure that the rifle's safety was on before tossing his belongings next to him. "Notice: No danger has been detected in 546 yards around your current location," The earpiece stated and he raised a brow, confused as to why they weren't following him.
"Notice: Signs of mild injuries have been found. Proceeding with medical procedures," A beeping sound was heard and the ravenette's head leaned against the wall's surface, feeling the stinging pain in his shoulder and throat slowly vanishing. He couldn't help but praise his lunatic father for creating such advanced technology, especially for military and medical uses.
While he was getting treated, he reached for his duffle bag and zipped it open, revealing extra ammo, food, blankets, and other weapons. "I better get back to that lab to get more rifle ammo," He noted with a small 'oops' and took out a can of beans and vegetables, cracking it open with a dagger. Carefully, he took his gas mask off and heard it release a puff of smoke with a sizzle.
A few months back, he accidentally discovered that he could survive on the oxygen-less planet for at least two days without his mask, which was very weird and concerning for him. Maybe it is because of how his lungs probably mutated to the oxygen-less planet when he was inside the cryonic. Who knows?
He shrugged and picked up a spoon from his bag and ate the canned vegetables with a grumbling expression, not liking the mushy texture of it. He has no choice but to slurp it down since he needs to survive. He finished the can and tossed it to the side before taking out a metal container of frozen beef stew and a travelling-size gas stove.
In an unexpectedly relaxed mood, he started to cook the frozen beef stew. It wasn't long before the smell of deliciously cooked stew entered his nostrils which caused his stomach to rumble from hunger. While he left the stew to continue cooking, he took his jacket off and shivered at the inhumane temperature. "Notice: Activating 'emergency warmer', please stand by," The earpiece stated and he immediately felt like he was sitting inside a warm bathtub. Satisfied, he picked up the stitching pouch from the bag and started to fix up his jacket.
"Those two didn't look like the others from before," He recalled with an uneasy feeling inside his stomach and rolled his stiff neck, mumbling, "I wonder if they were the new versions of murder drones that Earth sent? Father always ranted about how that stupid program could get so advanced if humans just continued to temper with it…" He shrugged and licked his lips when he stared at the boiling stew, tugging his jacket back on. With a giddy expression, he turned the stove off and started to eat the stew, moaning with glee as the delicious taste filled his mouth. Swiftly, he gulped everything down and sighed, feeling full for the first time in forever.
He stretched his arms before cleaning up and got himself cosy on the floor, pulling his duffle bag underneath his head to act as a pillow. "Notice: Sunrise will be approximately in seven hours, twenty minutes, and thirty-five seconds," The earpiece mentioned and he hummed, staring at the two moons through the broken windows. "Ellipse, be on guard and alert me if any movement or danger is detected in the radius of six hundred yards," He ordered while he placed his mask back on and folded his arms behind his head, finally getting sleepy from all the exhaustion.
"Notice: Request has been accepted. Now activating 'Guard duty' until sunrise," Ellipse's voice faded away after a small beep and his consciousness slipped away from him, lulling him into a dreamless state. The faint sound of snoring and the mask beeping filled the silent atmosphere.