I DO NOT OWN MURDER DRONES.
AS USUAL, ALL ARTS IN MY FANFICS ARE MADE BY ME.
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Chapter 4 : Whack-a-mole, or is it a mole..?(1)
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After checking the damage that was done to the relay(Oops), V arrived at the location where Uzi's belongings were found, which was not too far. It was on the other side of the mountain she was currently on.
Unlike where the communication relay was, this place was riddled with trees everywhere, squinting her eyes, her scanners analyzed the area and found multiple gunshots and marks left by what could be weaponry, a few trees were missing sizable chunks too.
Walking further, she eventually found the spot where oil was splattered, something was injured here, probably Uzi? The amount of oil was concerning since it was enough to make anyone bleed out. Her scanners pinged up and saw a trail of footsteps followed by a few drops of oil. She followed the trail and soon enough, she found the cliff where the expedition team lost their track.
V sighed, this is where the real search starts. She hasn't even started and yet she was already tired of it, the thought of having to encounter another Eldritch wasn't too pleasant after that Bird-brain.
She walked towards the edge of the cliff and looked down, seeing how deep the fall was.
Shit, could Uzi survive this fall without her wings?
Taking a deep breath, she dropped down and used her wings to slow her fall, slowly floating down to the deep dark forest that was below.
She landed with a soft thud, she immediately scanned the area for anything out of the norm, if Uzi died here, her corpse would have been a mess and her parts would have been everywhere, but seeing that there wasn't even a single patch of oil or hint that Uzi was here meant that, whatever she was fighting against, she managed to escape.
Albeit injured, alive but still injured.
A little bit of relief washed over V, knowing there was a higher chance of Uzi being alive.
V continued on with her search, before remembering that there was something in this forest that had gotten her attention during the fight with the bird, she didn't even realize until then that it was just somewhere around here.
Since there wasn't much to find in the trees, she might as well go there and see if there was anything about Uzi in there.
To the cave that was strangely well hidden, that is.
"WE'LL BE INTRUDING! MISS V!" Brad kicked the door to Luzi's home open after they unlocked the keypad. This will probably grant him an ass-kicking later from his mom, Lizzy, for barging into someone's house rudely.
But hey, at least they get to kick the curb out of Luzi's depression by spending time with her, the scolding will be totally worth it.
Brad gently let Luzi down, she was still complaining with a blush on her face, who wouldn't be embarrassed after being hauled across the town by your friends?
While Quinzlet silently gave apologies for entering their house so nonchalantly, Luzi walked towards their living room and saw a letter on the table with a paperweight on top, burrowing her eyes, she grabbed the piece of paper and read it..
Ah, so her step-mom-slash-auntie won't be back for a day or two, that means she'd have to grab her sisters later. V was usually gone for only an hour or so on her job, patrolling around the parameters of their outpost and reporting back.
If she was going to be gone for a day or more, it meant that there was something else, it was either that what Quinzlet said was true and V was most likely looking for her Mother, or she was going to go help on fixing the communication.
Knowing that her real mother was out there, she couldn't help but grow more worried, a severed arm meant she was attacked, probably by Eldritches. Luzi also worried for V being outside for that long, she knew she was a badass mom and fighter, but that didn't change the fact she could still die if she were to be careless.
She wanted to go outside, but at the same time, she was scared of stepping foot into the very place where her dad had died years ago. 'Angsty and Rebellious my ass', why did she even build that sorry-for-an-excuse Railgun if she was too scared to go outside..?
Her false mask of being an emo was something she'd grown to get away from the trauma of seeing her dad literally die in front of her while her mother failed to save him, being all depressed and sad wouldn't do while her Younger sisters were around, and she would have probably been bullied further for that.
Still.. the thought of going outside, it felt exciting and terrifying at the same time.
But nah, she wasn't that stupid, what if she and her friends accidentally encountered an Eldritch, ran back to the Outpost and let the Eldritches in unintentionally? That would have been disastrous, no way she's going to do that.
Something took her attention while she was holding the piece of paper, her eyes trailed down from the table into the couch where her sisters loved to play.
Sitting there was a painfully familiar beanie, she looked back to the letter and flipped it around seeing that there was something written behind it.
\\PS : Hey kiddo, I know I accidentally made you upset yesterday and saying sorry feels not enough.
So hey! Guess what I found? A beanie, don't ask where I got it from or why it looks awfully similar to 'her's', take care.
I know it's a sensitive topic to you but I didn't mean it like that.
-Certified Badass Auntie and Step-Mom, V. //
Wasn't this her mother's Beanie?! No wait, this was probably the same beanie Quinz's expedition team found and was later given to V, this probably confirms that V is indeed outside and is searching for her deadbeat mom.
Nevermind that, who puts a P.S behind a letter?
"Soo... Anything going on there, Lu?" Brad peeked from her shoulder.
She turned around and flicked the letter under her fingers.
"Ugh, V's outside the Outpost, probably looking for my mother just like what we thought."
"Better leave it to her then, seriously, the idea of sneaking out with just the three of us calls for literal trouble, we could have been killed.. " Brad rolled his eyes, Quinzlet grew embarrassed because of that.
"Again, spur of the moment thing." Quinz shrugged.
Luzi tuned them out and took the beanie and observed it, it was the same as she last saw it, save for the several tears in the fabric. Should.. She wear it..? This thing has gone through a lot over the years.
Her metallic fingers softly grasping the beanie with anger and sadness.
The fabric still felt the same no matter how rough it had become...
Almost as if it had never changed.
"Daddy! Pick me up!" A young Luzi called out to her father.
The pilot picked up his daughter and hugged her, "You little goof, is that your mom's hat? She'll get mad if you don't give it back you know?" N smiled at her.
"It's fine! She didn't see meeee" Luzi excitedly threw her hands in the air.
"Oh she definitely saw you." He laughed at her shenanigans, his daughter despite having her mothers appearance, inherited more from his programming, Uzi's charm for being devious and his penchant for being hyper at times.
"Naw! She didn't." Luzi complained.
N just shrugged and had her sit on his shoulders, she immediately started playing with his own hat with her mom's beanie.
"Yes, she did." He sighed at her, "You're just as excitable as I am biscuit, you're way too obvious, look." He pointed back at their house, through the window was Uzi who could be seen rummaging the house
"Where's my Beanie?!-" Uzi was searching through their couch and table. Her long hair was freely falling without the beanie to hide it.
"See? Your mom's looking for her beanie."
Yep, there was no way his wife wouldn't have noticed her hat going AWOL, she's gotten sharper over the years.
"Uh oh, indeed Little Luzi, your mom's gonna be angry." He nervously laughed. "You should probably give it back before she finds out you took it."
Luzi gulped with fear and nodded.
As much as the little carbon copy of Uzi tried to hide and secretly give back her mother's beanie back without being seen, it was already too late as
"Luzi?! My hat!" Uzi opened the window to their house and jumped from the second floor with little to no struggle, she wound up and curled her hand ready to bring down the smite of God, "Come here you! I'll give you noogies brat!" Uzi smiled as she approached the duo.
"Ah?! Not the noogies!" Luzi hastily dropped down from her daddy's shoulders and started running, Uzi in tow behind, cackling with devious glee as she chased her daughter.
"Come on! Mommies gonna give you the fist of love!"
N smiled at his family's shenanigans, his eyes more focused on his daughter who, despite running away in fear, was smiling cheerily.
He'll definitely make sure to keep their smiles safe, anything, just to make sure they're safe.
The memory cut off, she blinked.
She shook her head and decided against it, it belonged to her deadbeat mom's, not hers.
"Come on Luzi, show us your room, Brad's probably seen it before but I haven't. "
Luzi smiled and brought them to her room, the beanie In her hand.
She'll just hide this in her cabinet or something, not much to do with it. She wasn't gonna wear it and her younger sister Aralee already has a hat of her own, Vivy obviously wouldn't wear it.
"So, you guys wanna watch some movies?"
Luzi asked her friends, to which they cheerily accepted.
"Okay but, what movie are we watching first?" Quinzlet raised a finger
Luzi and Brad said at the same time, they looked at one another and burrowed their eyes.
"We're going with anime first."
Quinzlet seperated the two of them before they could continue yelling at each other's faces.
"Let's just watch Business True, at least that'll be enjoyable." If these two were going to fight over what movie goes first, she'll just go on ahead and watch something else.
"What do you mean Nu uh?"
"Nu uh. " Brad joined in.
"WHAT, The fuck you mean Nu uh?!" Okay seriously, Quinzlet was starting to get annoyed.
"Okay, you shits better listen here-" Oh, these two little shits.
What followed was a string of chaos as to decide what movie they were going to watch.
V dropped down with a light hum of her metallic wings, she'd finally arrived at the cave she spotted an hour ago, this.. stupid cave was so well hidden that you wouldn't be able to spot if you didn't observe well.
She hid her wings away and retracted her hands away in place of a cannon acting as a flash light and a sword.
Her swords were finally reproduced back 5 minutes after the fight with the bird was done,
If and when she gets to see Tessa again, she'll probably be asking for upgrades on her weaponry, she hasn't seen Tessa once ever since the Eldritches appeared, something has been keeping her and the other humans from entering Copper 9, supplies and pods filled with oil were still able to get past by, but every time they attempted rendezvous with J.
Their suspicion with all of this Eldritch business was obviously the [ABSOLUTESOLVER] being revived and is constantly spawning these biomechanical creatures while keeping the humans from intervening.
That was not possible, they'd seen to its destruction themselves, CYN, as much as a victim she was. Was also obliterated alongside it.
And yet these things appeared anyways, V and Uzi's Theory was that these 'Eldritches' are remnants left by the [ABSOLUTESOLVER] as one last attempt to fuck them up alongside everyone.
So far there hasn't even been a concrete proof, only a suspicion for now due to how these things are half-flesh half-machine, there was no sign of the usual symbol or null black holes.
It was also worth noting that the Eldritches made by the solver had distinct and unique appearances compared to the Eldritches that was roaming around the planet.
This was noticed by both Uzi and N back then when these things started appearing. Apparently, the monstrous form that J had taken, something she herself never saw, was still compact and mechanical at most, in contrast to the Eldritches they're dealing with that are actually covered by whatever kind of Animal or Insect they're based on.
Like the bird she had fought an hour ago, which had actual feathers and organs, while also having parts of a literal Jet sticking out of its body.
She entered the cave with her flash light, sword on standby for any threats that might come at her, the cave wasn't too big but it went deep. Like really deep, it even felt like it had a system of tunnels of sorts.
There was moss and grass inside despite being deep inside a cave, there wasn't much to see here, the damn place was too dark, she eventually reached a part of a cave where the moon light could seep through the small holes in the ceiling, it wasn't even fair to call it a part of the cave, It was a huge clearing inside the cave that could be thought as a giant room.
But that's not what V's eyes focused on, the ceiling wasn't just a bunch of holes punching through the ceiling, those were damned leaves covering the ceiling itself.
V narrowed her eyes in confusion, it almost looked like a pitfall, the hole that was being covered by leaves could fit a drone or two... In fact..
V started smelling the air, despite having no noses, the Disassemblers were given the ability to smell oil to help hunting down worker drones, something she stopped using until the war with the rogue Disassemblers 13 years ago, and when the Eldritches appeared 5 years ago..
Just two years after the Solver's death, some disassembly drones banded together and tried to attack their outpost for food, since Tessa was off planet for a whole year, they didn't have a single proof to stop the rouge Disassemblers from attacking, obviously they didn't listen to J because she was only a squad leader at the time.
The rouge Disassemblers were also outdated on information, they never knew about the [ABSOLUTESOLVER] or the fact that JcJenson was gone. With the solver gone and their regeneration also gone, the small war had become somewhat bloody but short because of it.
It was only till then that they managed to convince the rest of the Disassemblers to surrender when Tessa landed on the planet months early before her intended one year off planet business.
They didn't have to lose a lot of people that time.. Stupid dumbasses, not believing them, look where that got most of them to, 6-damn-feet below.
V continued to use her sense of smell to move around the illuminated part of the cave, there was something in here, ever since she got close to the cave, there was something that's been bothering her,
she wouldn't have bothered going inside the cave if not for it.
A smell that felt familiar to her.
Her programmed sense of smell finally pinpointed where the source was its strongest, she turned and ran towards it, clearing through multiple pillars of stone that were connected from the floor to the rocky ceiling.
She stopped in front of a slightly larger pillar and peek to its sides, her flashlight pointing to a spot that could be leaned on the pillar.
Her eyes immediately widened, this smell she was smelling.
The smell she'd grown accustomed to as the owner of it was injured when she was around numerous times.
in front of her was a small puddle of oil leaning on the pillar.
Uzi's oil, she was bleeding here.
And she was dying by the looks of it.
V immediately started scanning the area to the best of her processors, it'll take away a good amount of her reserves if she uses it for too long, but that didn't matter, Uzi was more important. Judging by the texture of the splatter of oil, it hasn't been more than a few hours since Uzi was here.
Her eyes followed down a trail of oil that was seemingly walking towards an exit, she used her flashlight and unfurled her wings and followed the trail that slowly disappeared.
Uzi had either bandaged it or stopped the bleeding somehow if the trail slowly disappeared.
V weaved through the multitudes of pillars inside the cave and reached the probable exit Uzi took, a small exit that led upwards, it was the direction where the trail stopped.
She dived through the exit with her wings folded close to her body to fit through the narrow exit, she kicked the ground forward to keep her momentum and stay airborne.
A lightning speed blurred through the mouth of the cave, flying towards the forest.
V scanned the area as fast as she could, her processors working overtime as her eyes darted wildly with lightning speed, looking for anything that was slightly out of place in the thick snowy forest.
Worker footprints, it was faint, nearly cleaned away by the snow.
If there had been a storm or a blizzard, it would have been long gone.
V immediately spread her wings and changed the direction of her momentum.
She dove down to the forest, flying slightly above the ground to get a better view at her trail.
If Uzi was here less than a few hours ago, maybe five to six hours, she has a small window of opportunity to catch up wherever she went.
'It's a good thing there isn't any blizzard, otherwise, her footprints would have been covered by snow.' V thought as she followed the barely visible lead to Uzi.
After a game of repetitive continuous rock-paper-scissors, they finally settled on watching
a horror movie. It was the only way so that the three of them wouldn't fight over on what movie goes first.
The movie itself wasn't bad, it was fairly lengthy and scary that even Luzi had started cowering behind a blanket while the other two held onto the couch uncomfortably.
Yeah, Luzi also inherited her father's apparent trait for being easily scared when he was a worker. N had consoled her that she'll get over it as she ages back then, but that didn't make Luzi any less happy for being easily scared.
She didn't have her Father's easy cheat code of repressing things with ease damn it, or so she heard from her mother(s)
After the movie ended, Luzi checked her Innerclock and saw that it was time for her to pick up her sisters, getting up, she informed the other two that she had to pick up her sisters, asking what they'll be doing while she's gone.
To which they suggested they come with her, Luzi just shrugged but appreciated it anyways.
It didn't take long for them to reach the school for younger drones, ever since the expansion, there were two schools made for them. The first being elementary level, for younger dronelings under the age of 13, the school she goes to was high school, obviously for teenagers and above.
When they entered the school, it was fortunate that Aralee and Vivy were in the same class, there was a damned chance they could get bullied for being different.
She didn't need her sisters growing up like her.
However, her worrying was quickly slapped to the ground when two yellow blurs immediately slammed into Luzi's chest cavity causing her to fall on her ass.
"Guha?!" She catapulted several feet where she originally stood, ragdolling her away.
"I AM so glad I wasn't in front of you just now." Brad quipped from the side.
"Nor was I behind her, I would have been thrown to another dimension if she hit me." Quinzlet joined in, her arms crossed with amusement. She was smart enough not to be directly behind her, that amount of force would have been painful for a normal worker like her.
Clinging onto Luzi were both of her adorable younger sisters, if you didn't know much about Luzi's strange family, you'd think these two were twins because of their identical hair colors, the only difference was that Aralee had a quarter of her hair colored purple.
That at the very least signified she was Luzi's sibling,
though she didn't really care, it added charm to the two half-breeds.
"H-Hey.. Your big sister's here to pick you up." Luzi rested a hand on their backs and hugged them.
"Big sis! You came to pick us up!" Aralee said while she was hugging her big sister, who was struggling to stand up from the combined wait for her younger siblings, fortunately Brad held out a hand for Luzi to grab on. "Where's mom though?"
"Ah, Mom- Auntie might not be back for a few days, MIGHT." Luzi was finally able to get up with the help of Brad, both of her sisters were still clinging onto her tightly.
Something Brad noticed over the years was that Luzi had trouble what to refer to Mrs. V, she would occasionally call her mom, then later on Auntie. If he were to bet, it would probably be because she still feels awkward with V.
"Mom's busy again..?" Vivy jumped down from her clinging and fixed her glasses, apparently V at some point in her life had terrible optical calibration, needing glasses to see properly. Something that Vivy seemed to have inherited.
"Yep, she's busy with something again, pretty big job this time around, she might not be back for a few days. MIGHT." Either V will find Uzi in a single day or she'll be spending a good amount of time outside to search for her.
Luzi knew her auntie/stepmom was damn good at anything, from fighting to teaching.
She was just that awesome of a mom, I guess.
'If V can go against monstrous Eldritches and win while showing off infront of us, then finding Mother should be an easy cake walk for her, hopefully.'
Right, it should be done in just a day or two for V.
Back when a low High-class Eldritch had managed to get inside the Outpost, V was the to have taken it down, V was even showing off when she and her younger sisters watched. That's probably one of the reasons her fame is so high, other than obviously saving the Outpost from a threat.
"It's pretty important, so she'll be gone for a while." Luzi gave them a toothy grin and put a hand on her waist. "Which means! you'll be spending time with your big sister, our cool mom isn't here to make sure you guys sleep early, that means you two can stay up! Who wants to go watch movies?" She pumped her fist and smiled at them.
Aralee and Vivy's eyes slowly widened with excitement.
As much as V loved these two, she was very strict when it came to what they can and cannot do, Luzi didn't think much about it since V was very gentle when it came to her house rules.
Both sisters said at the same time, causing Luzi to gush at how cute they were.
'Ahhhhh~~~ they're so cute, my little sisters are so cute! ' Luzi screamed internally in ecstasy.
"You know, sometimes, despite how much of a great caring person you are, you can be a bad influence to your sisters.." Quinzlet quipped Unimpressingly from behind her.
Luzi just pouted and ignored her.
"No, no she's got a point." Brad fired in from the side, causing Luzi to glare at him, joining in ganging up on Luzi comedically. 'Ugh, these two idiot friends of mine always tries to do it while my sisters are around to mess with me.'
As if hearing her thoughts. Said 'two idiots' shared a look and grinned at her.
'Someone's gotta keep you on your toes Lu, it's just fun to tease you when they're around.' Brad silently conveyed.
'Definitely fun to tease.' Quinzlet also did the same.
Luzi rolled her eyes and turned to her sisters.
"Alright, let's go home you two." Luzi said to her younger sisters.
Both dronelings nodded excitedly and silently followed her, Brad and Quinzlet in tow.
When they got back home, it was already about 7 PM, about 2 hours before Aralee and Vivy usually go to sleep. But since V wasn't here to make sure the small drones slept early, the teenagers went on ahead and continued to pick out movies while the younger drones watched with them, Luzi stood up and signaled for them to continue watching the movie while she goes and prepares food for her and her sisters.
And a few snacks for her friends, Worker drones might not need oil as much as hybrids and DD's does, they still need to consume food once in a while.
Quinzlet and Brad had already messaged their respective parentsthat they were going to stay with Luzi's house prior to coming here. She knew her Auntie Lizzy and Uncle Thad wouldn't mind Brad being here since they're technically family. She didn't know much about Quinzlet's parents, enough to say they did somewhat care for her.
She gave them the food and snacks she prepared and joined back in the movie marathon, annoyingly she took quite some time preparing the food, causing her to miss out on some parts of the movie. After a few hours, she noticed that her sisters had already fallen asleep, leaning on each other.
'So cute.. ~' She mentally giggled, she checked the time and saw that it was pretty late, she told the other two who were still watching to continue on while she brought her sister's to their room.
She returned back with her friends and saw that the movie they were watching had already ended, Quinzlet moved and switched the movie to something scary for a change of pace, another hour went by and the three teenagers were already feeling sleepy.
Seeing that they were tired, Luzi told Brad to sleep on the couch since he was a guy(Ouch? But fair.) while Luzi gave Quinzlet a sleeping bag she had hidden in her closet, she laid next to Quinzlet with her own sleeping bag and let herself fall asleep.
When Luzi woke up it was already time for her to go to school with her friends, before realizing that it was Saturday, a day off for students.
She sighed and zipped back her sleeping bag and laid back down.
Luzi looked out the window and couldn't help but feel worried for V.
It's already been a day hasn't it? Did V find her deadbeat mother who left mere days after her dad died?
Or was V injured and ambushed by Eldritches? Possibly infected by a Fragmented..?
Is V going to be able to come back after being outside for so long? Thirty minutes was already considered long just being outside, what did that mean then for multiple days..?
Luzi shook her head and repositioned herself, she won't let those thoughts continue and let it bother her.
She trusted V, so it's fine.
It was a really good thing Brad was sensible enough to kick the idea out of them of going outside and searching for her mother themselves.
That was incredibly stupid, why leave a perfectly safe haven when there was literally no need to when someone else who was more fit for the job was already doing it? They weren't in an anime, damn it Quinz.
Probably better this way.
It was better that they stayed here, at least they could just find clues inside the Outpost itself without the risk of being in danger, compared to going outside and having V worry about them, if they'd gone outside she'll probably be distracted by them.
The Outpost was perfectly safe, no need to leave it.. Just let V do the job.
"Aughh.. This is boring!" A worker drone armed with a rifle said while he leaned on his chair, he was guarding the pipe section near the path to Outpost 3, just a little deep within Gate A-7, the part where it looks like a tunnel of a cave specifically.
He didn't know why he had to be here, Outpost 3, The literal Outpost above Outpost Alpha was already considerably guarded.
With multiple armed worker drones and Disassembly drones and all that..
"Shoulda never left the WDF, at least they had multiple people up there, playing cards..
But noooo, Ned had to invite me to work at JESSA's just because it paid much better, not that were actually paid money, just oil." The Worker continued to talk to himself, shifts like this was terrible especially when you're alone.
You tend to talk to yourself about jobs like these.
"Huh?" The worker was cut off from his self-talk when he heard the sounds of multiple rocks falling over.. Hold on.
He was inside a fortified and perfectly supported cave! Sure it was dark and the pathway itself looked very crumbly.
But the company had already reinforced the walls with multiple steel beams to avoid a cave-in.
The clattering of heavy rocks continued to worsen, the worker grabbed both his rifle and a flashlight and pointed it to where the sound was likely coming from, the ceiling of the cave.
His audio receptors picked up on the sound of something.. Eating? Digging through the rocks.
A giant hole the size of a car was immediately punched through the ceiling, what fell down alongside it had sent shivers to the Worker that was likely about to die.
What was in front of the worker was a scaley abomination that could be mistaken for a very tall Disassembly Drone with a few.. Changes, unfortunately for the worker it wasn't one.
Standing 7 ft tall, armored by scales, it's arms were replaced by the fleshy form with a few spots of skin of a moles, sharp claws made specifically for digging through earth with ease, it's legs were also armored by the same brown colored scales, it's legs were squatted, similar to a digitgraded legs.
Its head resembled a worker drone's, except for the fact it had an open jaw full of teeth, the back of its head was a sharp solid wide horn.
'Is this an Eldritch or a Fragmented! What the fuck is it!?'
The worker wasted no time shooting the damn thing to hell, only for the bullets to bounce off its shell like it was nothing.
The Worker started backing off when he saw it did nothing.
"No.. No way, the reports mentioned a humanoid eldritch, even if it's only an evaluation from the damage outside the doors... They said it might classify as Specia-'' His fear toned voice was immediately cut off.
The worker didn't even have time to finish when the upper half of his body was immediately swiped clean off by its arms.
Clawdreroff snarled at the worker, it opened its jaws wider and began to eat its freshly killed prey, in one gulp.
The humanoid half-drone half-flesh abomination sniffed the air, more food.
The abomination was extremely hungry, it was supposed to have fed on easy food hours ago.
It could vaguely remember being alongside other Eldritches, they were all hunting the same food.
Or what was supposed to be food.
'P̶̺͙̤̏̕ȗ̵̱̈́ŗ̸̺̐̾̅p̶̡̤̼͐l̴̢̩͓͂̏͝ê̴̫ ̸̘͇̄̊̆p̴̻̹̓̉r̵̨̖̓e̷̳̺͚̕y̷̭͍̐̓̎.̷̘̩̲̈̚.̸͖̗̾ ̴̬̐̿Ņ̷̙͉͊o̴͖̯̞͋̌t̷̡́͜ͅ ̶̤̇̓̏p̷̯͘r̷̝̈́͜͜e̵̝̭͊y̷̘̭̒͗.̶̱̏.̴̻̠͉̒̽͐ ̴̖̲̖̂D̴̩̖̟͋͐͐ą̸͙̫̓n̷̻̘͋̓̀g̸̭̬̜̎e̵̳̓͗r̵̹̦̆ő̶̢̀̊ũ̶̯s̵̢͚̠̈́.̶̛̹͍͉̈́.̴͙͙͚͐.̵̟͔̠̋͌͘ ̸̨̭̮͋̉̓P̴̘͊ͅū̶̪̐̌r̷̗̜̱̒p̵̖͑l̸͚̞̪̔ȩ̵̥͛́ ̶̪͖͖̂̃͗Ȉ̸̼̦̙̆́n̸͇͈̕j̸̻͎͇̇̌u̷̦̎̌̃r̷̥̖̞̆ẽ̵͕͔̼͝d̷̠̗̓̋͠,̷͚̱̍̌̓͜ ̴͙͉̦̂͐̓p̶̮̣̘̈́ṵ̵̤̀̚ṛ̵̐p̶̭͍̤͛ḷ̵̲͙͘e̵̯̫͊̈́ ̶̠̜̖͗ḽ̶̗̳̂͛o̸̳͒s̶̢̈́̑̐t̸̻͒̑̏ ̵̥̺̈́a̷̻͔͐ȑ̴͓͈̃͘m̷̩̜͇͒͂́.̸̡̾
̷̫͇͎́̽́N̸̞͗͌̃ö̵͖́̂̈́ ̷̡̊̓̽l̴̜̩̇͛͜o̷͈̥̰͆̄n̸̻̓g̶̥͐̚é̴̤̲̻r̷̠͛̄̚ ̷͖̅d̴̼̤͖͒̽a̶̧̩̍̍̕ň̵̳̽g̴̼̙̟̓͑̕e̸͕̾͋r̵͖̂̇õ̸͇̠̓ͅu̴͖̞͗̔̔s̴̰̭̻̈?̵͙̐ ̵̡̋̋̏N̵̼̥̊̅o̸̙͍͊̅͠,̷͉͗̄̈́ ̷̝̭̼̈̀s̴̰̋ṱ̴͍͒͂͗i̸͎̮̫̎l̷͕͆̏l̶̛͙̹ ̵̡͈̪̕d̸̦̬̐̊͊ä̶̹̮̞́̊͝n̷͖͗́̏g̷̪̲͛̿e̴̯̾̐͊r̵͔̃́o̶͕͆̓u̸̬͍͐̄s̵͕̘͠.̸̯̻̑͒̓ ̴̨̣̟́̈́M̷̧̛͍̟̓ū̸̡̘͂s̶̙͔̫̑̇t̸͎̾ ̸̱̖͛k̵̪̙̅̊͘ͅi̸̠͉̮͗ľ̶̡̘͖͒l̵̞̗̉̅̽ ̵̨̫̞̿̉̈́ï̴̢̮̯f̴̢̝͚͌̄͝ ̴̳͎̹͋̈́̉s̵͐̈́͝ͅe̴̡̢̱͋͠e̷̳̙̹̓́.̶̦̾͐.̵̙̔'
It's internal musings cut off as it let it's instincts guide it towards where it could hunt.
A place brimming with artificial life, Outpost Alpha.