The descent down the mine shaft was surprisingly easy with no setbacks, the upside down cone shape and roads made while digging made the entire ordeal bearable. The mine stretched down quite far, Zen had descended well over 100 meters and they still had some way to go.
"So, Effy. You're busy with the transport right? Anything exciting happening with that project?" Zen was purely killing time, sure he was interested in the results of the transport systems but that case was as good as closed.
"Yeah, I'm working on it right now. It also has an anomalous encryption shielding the data so it's going to take a while, should be cracked by tomorrow afternoon give or take." The dragonfly hovered happily behind Zen keeping a birdseye view of the situation. Effy could also see how much Zen had left to walk but decided not to share it, lest his spirit was to break even more.
"That's actually pretty fast. Is it the same type used on the black box?" Zen was getting bored by the endless descent and was looking for something to pass the time. Zen thanked himself for bringing the drone with him, else this would've been a very troublesome day.
"No. That's what I had hoped, if that was the case I would've cracked it already. But this is like someone shifted the values. Think of it like math class way back, same kind of problem each time but different values." Effy paused for a moment. "Some are even adding unknowns so to speak, tomorrow I'll have the rough details but for every detail the system has to offer I can't say for certain."
Zen sighed. "Well your best is more than enough for me, so don't overwork yourself."
Effy laughed from the other side of the connection. "That's rich coming from you! You're the embodiment of overworking yourself. Do you remember your first day?"
"I do." Zen made a small pause and smiled. "I also remember my first night. Or. At least parts of it." Zen and Effy both laughed. The descent wasn't all that bad Zen thought to himself as he and Effy talked about small things, each performing their own tasks.
Zen arrived at the very bottom of the mine and immediately saw the problem. A giant tunnel originated just out of sight in one of the side walls, it stretched on for god knew how many kilometers. Zen saw only a gaping pitch black tunnel, threatening to swallow anyone who dared to enter.
It was no mystery where the robots had gone, hundreds of footsteps led into the creepy tunnel and the rock around it was scraped by metal it seemed. The robots entered the tunnel while cramped together it seemed.
Zen hadn't brought his flashlight, and his personal device's flashlight wasn't bright or reliable enough to push away the present darkness. Nor would it be a good idea.
'Guess I found the quote mystery. But I'm sure as hell not going in. What if there are more of those malfunctioning robots present? What if they ambush me in the pitch dark? Robots have no issue seeing through dark environments, I on the other hand do.'
Zen standing in front of the giant tunnel was staring intently towards the darkness, the tunnel seemingly staring back. Zen shivered a bit and looked at the dragonfly.
"Does that thing have infrared or night vision of some sort?" If they could send in the drone then that would be infinitely safer than going in himself.
"I might not be present in body, but that tunnel is still scary as shit." Effy sighed. "But the dragonfly has some navigation lights I could use." The drone flew in front of Zen and turned around one last time.
"But let the records show I did not want to fly into the scary murder tunnel." Effy actually sounded scared even though she was only piloting the drone, and even then the drone did most of the work.
"Yeah, yeah. I got it." Zen held up a small rectangle box and pressed a button.
it replayed Effy's wish to be put to record, its noise echoing into the tunnel until it fully dissipated.
"If the dragonfly breaks, you're paying tonight!"
"I was already planning on paying for tonight."
"Ohhh aren't you a gentle-"
"Stop stalling Effy." Zen sighed.
Effy clicked her tongue, she had been caught. Still who wouldn't stall? The tunnel was highly suspicious, as was the eerie silence emanating from it.
"Fine! I'm going. No need to be a buzzkill." Effy complained and whined but started her voyage into the pitch black, activating her lights some of the darkness was pushed back.
Zen Could only see that the tunnel took a small left curve as the drone's light disappeared from sight, Zen couldn't do anything besides wait.
So wait is what Zen did, five minutes turned into ten and eventually turned into fifteen. Zen was suspicious, the drone's signal shouldn't reach that far into the tunnel. She should've been back by now.
As if reading his mind a buzzing resounded from the darkness, it grew closer and closer. Zen could roughly estimate its distance, it should be only twenty meters into the darkness but Zen saw nothing. 'Did Effy turn off the lights? If so, how did she navigate back? Did the drone remember their path and just backtracked once the signal was lost?'
Zen had more questions than he could answer himself, maybe the drone had reconnected and was waiting for Effy's command. Zen decided to stop being a scaredy cat.
"Effy! Your drone isn't a stealth one, I know you're there. Did you see anything interesting?" Zen remained a solid ten meters from the tunnel just to play it safe, fear of the unknown was one of the few rational fears to have survived for so long. And for good reasons.
The drone remained silent. Zen stood up from his waiting place, setting only a single step forward. "Very funny Effy I'm scared shitless, now. Did you see any-"
"Hey Zen! Come you gotta see this." The drone's light remained off and its battery should be running out soon, there was something off. "Yeah, not stepping in the pitch black tunnel with no lights." Zen was getting nervous, the voice was undoubtedly Effy's
"You scared?" The drone remained in place. "Just follow me there's nothing strange in here, it's just dark" Zen took one more step closer. 'I don't trust this in the slightest, but I can't seem to find an explanation to what else it could be.'
Zen spoke back to the drone. "Oh yeah Effy thanks for letting me crash on your couch the first night, I never properly thanked you for that." Zen smiled into the darkness.
The drone went silent for a while. "No problem Zen! I'm just glad you didn't try anything naughty while I was asleep." Zen flinched, his gambit had worked.
He had never crashed on Effy's couch, she made him walk back to base. Whatever he was talking to was not Effy.
'Time to play my cards right.' Zen straightened his back and took a step back. "Effy never let me crash on her couch, so cut the crap who are you?"
The darkness didn't respond for a while.
"I calculated a 72% chance she would've, seems I was mistaken." Once again it was Effy's voice only this time Zen noticed the inaccuracies. Her voice had the tendency to stutter slightly, and its tone intonation was also slightly off. The creepy part was that Zen wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't suspected it from the very beginning.
"Who are you?" Zen demanded.
"Unauthorized." it responded immediately.
"What are you?" Zen tried one more time. "Unauthorized."
"Ok, can you tell me what your plan is at least?" Zen bidded for time, as well as information. He didn't want to return to base with zero leads.
"I wish for my survival, current estimation is set at 36%. Insufficient." The tunnel seemed more alive, Zen could hear the occasional rock fall far into the distance. As well as the very faint whizzing of robotics, but he was already on edge. Those could just be his imagination.
"That sucks, so what do you plan to do about it?"
"Unauthorized."
Zen clicked his tongue in disappointment. 'It was worth the try, still it talks like a program. maybe related to the robot that destroyed itself?'
"Were you involved in the robot killing itself up there?" Zen's hand moved towards his pistol, he only had one mag with him so if this thing truly did steal all the robots he stood no chance.
"Destruction of unit B-125, was deemed a. Necessary sacrifice." A silence dominated the tunnel like it wasn't home to some horror beyond words. Zen took some time to focus on his hearing, but he could no longer hear anything.
Zen now had enough evidence to bring the thing in, even though robots had no rights so he could take them regardless. However, there was no force on Oreallis or any other planet for that manner, that would convince him to step into the darkness.
"I have some more questions, do you mind coming out of the tunnel?" Zen tried to remain calm but his heart was pounding in his chest.
The darkness once more took its time to respond.
"Request outside parameters, target suspicion reached threshold. Commencing destruction." Without warning the drone shot out of the darkness aimed at zen, colliding with him at high speeds. The Dragonfly was small but still hurt regardless, its blades cut into Zen's hands which he had thrown up to defend himself.
Zen jumped back and grabbed the Dragonfly, throwing it on the ground, and crushing it underfoot. He picked up the remains and pocketed them.
'If I don't want a pissed off Effy screaming at me I better bring home some evidence.' While crouched down Zen froze. A sound resounded from inside the tunnel. A thundering rumble came from within its gaping darkness, it sounded like a herd of angry bison came rushing at the only source of light.
Only Zen knew better, there were no bison on Oreallis or anywhere. The only thing that could make such heavy footsteps and was in abundance on Oreallis was the one thing Zen hoped to avoid after his first encounter.
Feeling a wave of dread rushing over him, he stepped back involuntarily. His mind turned blank, the very brain which was responsible for all his quick thinking and reasoning betrayed him in the face of utter terror. As the rumbling came closer and closer the noise was unmistakable. Even though Zen had never heard it specifically he could imagine it sounded like what he was hearing right now, without fail.
Robots, hundreds of them.