At The Core

DEATH

-Uzi-

Acceptance...

One of the most powerful feelings, or emotions if your human, an AI can have... What a worker drone can have...

I cannot allow myself to feel acceptance... not now, not ever...

No...

All I will allow myself to feel...

Is the feeling of fresh betrayal, as I watch my father... No, as I watch Khan Doorman shakily press the button to close Door 3 of Outpost 3... my colony... my home... Khan Doorman closed the door on his own freaking DAUGHTER! He was supposed to be my father, half of my code and chassis was his own! But... when everything came down to it... I guess I didn't really mean much to him. My grip on N's wing blade feather thing loosened, as I feel my arms hang limply at my sides. Alarms start blaring, as the warning systems of the colony begin blaring to tell everyone to go to the evacuation point in the bunker. My left arm began feeling numb, probably when N stabbed me with his wingblade. Most likely severed a servo wire or processor, but I could care less about that. I could care less about everything opright now. Maybe I would get lucky, and either deactivate permanently, or get a quick death by N's 3 blade-claw hand. Either of those would be better fates than a slow death by his nanite acid. Was this how Mom felt before she was killed? Would I even see her again? Do drones have an afterlife? Or does their code just stop at death...

A soft clanging from a ventilation shaft comes to my quickly fading out audio receptors. My guess, N's squad mates have arrived. J and V were their names, but I can't remember for sure. Guess my memory circuits are getting fried. N keeps me pinned, though he has a sympathetic expression playing on his screen. The dang cinnamon roll who freaking has a dark side.

[Warning: Oil leak detected.... Damage to the Right Clavicle irreparable... Seek Technician for repairs and replacement parts]

I sigh internally at the obvious alert on my HUD, but I just close it and ignore things I already knew. I can already feel non-essential systems, programs, and subroutines beginning to shut down for the foreseen future. I feel my body suddenly drop to the ground, but I don't move as my limbs were considered non-essential right now. Just great, but at least I won't be able to feel if they get ripped off horribly.

"Who's this little darling~" I hear a voice who belonged to who I guessed was V, which would make sense from how N described V back at the landing pod. "Her name is Uzi, and well..." I hear N hesitate. Man he needs some self confidence boosters.

"She kinda got... left for dead. She had an awkward moment with her dad, and he kinda left her for me to kill..." N trailed off, sympathy dripping from his voice. If I weren't literally dying from oil loss, I'd smack him once for saying the moment was awkward, just because he didn't need to get that detailed. The second slap is give him being too dreadfully innocent for this world.

"So? Kill her already, and let's get to the rest of this colony," another female voice says. Just from this gals voice, I can already hear CORPORATE LAPDOG dripping from her tone. I would assume this be J, but I again can't remember properly. "What? But she was abandoned, there must be some-" N began before J interrupts him. "N, she is a WORKER DRONE, there is nothing we can do besides kill her, and then add her corpse to the spire," J says flatly. I could hear N's disappointment from here, even if he made no sound. What I didn't expect him to do, was rebel like an angsty teen. "No J, she is more than just some worker drone J, she has value. Her core is pure, unlike any other workers we have encountered. There must be something we can do, some regulation that protects her. Something in the long list of policies the company sent us, and at least one of them should protect workers that are deemed useful." N says, grasping at figurative straws. There was a long silence, J probably being stunned from this little act of defiance. N, I forgive anything you may have said wrong, though Imma be dead before I can say that, literally.