Workmates?

The second Conflict

7:56 PM
The Spire

V bolted up from the cold ground and screamed at the top of her voice box. Her whole structure was shaking with fear and her visor hurt like it had never before. What just happened to her? It all felt so... real. So real in fact that V thought that she had died right then and there. The female sat there for a couple of moments before she heard the landing pods doors slide open. "V?! Are you ok?!" Merely a second later she felt his hands grab her shoulder joints. "V!? Talk to me! you're shaking!" Finally the drone turned to face her squadmate.

N wore a thin turtle neck sweater he'd found whilst walking through the city. "I heard you scream, w-what happened?!" The male drone shook his counterpart lightly, which brought her out of her trance. "... I ... " V closed her mouth again and looked away from him. "... was just a nightmare... let go of me please." Both drones looked at one another for a brief second before he took his hands off of her. "I'm sorry V... I just... I got worried because I've never heard you scream like this before." 

Oh how much he cared about her... what wouldn't she give for them to lead normal worker drone lives like they once had... but that's something that they won't ever be able to return to...

"You know N... I had this nightmare where the WDF dispatched some... worker-soldier... drone things? I don't know... Anyways, -" She cleared her voicebox before continuing. "- I got badly damaged and then shot me into the head... right-" She grabbed his hand "- here..." His cool steel hand rested softly on her visor. Neither party dared to say a thing. Instead they just wanted to cherrish this moment of comfort they had. 

"Can you still feel it?" The hand she'd put on her visor for him glid down to her cheek. "Faintly..." V took a deep breath. "But you've helped ease the pain. I already feel better. Guess it must've been the shock of the moment." The male drone nodded and withdrew his hand. After looking at one another for a bit they both stood up. Suddenly there was a faint rumble in the distance. The longer they listened, the closer and louder the rumbling noise got. N decided to listen carefully and analyze the source of the noise.

"Sounds like... a landing pod?" Both drones looked up into the sky just in time, to spot two large dropships dashing towards their position. The airborne vehicles slowed to a halt right above the  pair and armored doors on both sides of each ship slid open. Then a variety of heavily armed and armored disassembly drones bailed out and landed around N and V. 

When the snow, that had been blown up finally settled, they both realized they were surrounded. "And yet... we meet again so soon... I couldn't just let you go N, I need to know how you overwrote the code." A familiar voice said. "You! Stay away from him!" V had swapped her right hand to a rifle and pointed it directly at H, who'd stepped forward and towards them. The officer frowned. "Haven't your parents ever taught you that you should not point a weapon at another drone unless you fully intend to use it?"

Was this prick seriously doubting her? Now out of all times? Fine. V aimed her rifle at H's left leg and fired. The projectile pierced right through the shin armor plate and the synthetic muscle fiber behind it, leaving a clean hole. This brought H down to his knees. But instead of saying anything he just snipped his fingers. She heard a rifle go off, an impact sound and N yelping. It felt like time had slown to a crawl as she turned to look at what happened.

One of H's soldiers had shot N directly into his circulation pump. He was loosing oil at a rapid pace. "N! Is your maintenance system operational?!" V barked and shook him. The male ran a checkup of his system, however he did not respond after he found the answer. Instead he just... stared at her with hollow eyes. An expression of pure shock and disbelief stared at her. "V, I think my circulation pump just broke... I can hear it's cylinders grinding to a halt... I... I don't think I'll-" Before he could finish what he wanted to say she had already slapped him.

"Shut up." The female said in a calm voice. "You won't die here. You can't because we've got a steady supply of spare parts for your pump right here." Then she darted right over to a soldier and cut his head clean off. Because these drones were disassembly types like N and V herself she had to destroy the organic core, which she did by using the stinger attached to her tail. The female disassembly drone rammed it down the throat of the decapitated soldier. The silence which followed these actions dragged on for a mere second. 

"Exterminate her!" H yelled and pointed at V, who was trying to get her stinger out of the corpse. Various drones opened fire onto her, so V had no other option. Mercy was off the table. Knowing that a disassembly drone will be back in action after a few seconds of receiving a headshot she had to act fast. Meanwhile N didn't have the strenght anymore to stand upright, so he knelt in the snow, watching V. What he saw he could only describe as a steel tornado of fury and pure rage tearing through the extermination team soldiers. V was unstoppable.

After the last of H's subordinates fell she shot the officer drone into his other leg, crippling him. "Y-You! Do you know what you're doing?! Do you have any idea who I am?! I'm a protected drone! You can't kill me!" H yelled at the approaching female. Without replying a word to him she shot H in the head and pounced onto his body. N watched as bodyparts, synthetic rubber and steel plates were thrown all over the place. Finally she ripped a circulation pump similar to N's out of H's corpse.

Without wasting any more precious time she dashed back over to N, tore a small hole into his chest and began on-site maintenance for him. After a few minutes of unscrewing, unplugging disconnecting, reconnecting, plugging and screwing she had swapped the two pumps out, closing N's oilflow system again. The male drone sat up and was now face to face with his saviour. "V, I-" She put a finger onto his lips and slightly shook her head. "It's ok N, no need to thank me. It's the least I could do."

N sighed and stood up. He couldn't really believe that the extermination team was slaughtered within five minutes. V really was one of the top disassembly drones JCJenson had to offer. Not even soldier drones were a match to her. N should really thank her for what she did for him today, although she said it's fine. The male thought for a second before snipping his fingers. "V come here." He waved her over. "What is it? If this is you trying to thank me for saving you again then-" Before V could finish whatever she was on about N had closed the distance between them and embraced her.

A wave of warmness rushed through her body. "Thank you V... for everything." N whispered as he held her close. Considering that they both don't really spend alot of time this close to one another they could make an exception. V embraced him aswell now and they stood there for a moment, taking it all in. Then they parted again and N spoke up. "You know V, even if we're not meant for one another, I just want you to know that I'll always be there for you. No matter what happens." A bright smile formed on his face as he winked at her. 

V felt tears welling up and had turn away. She sniffled quietly and shook her head before turning to face him again. "That means alot to me N. Thank you." She returned a smile just as bright. It all felt like the incident had been completely washed over, that it never happened. That it was just a bad dream after all... but... still. It happened, V lost control of herself. That couldn't possibly ever happen again. She needed to get a grip of herself and control her emotions. Deep inside though, the female knew that it was his fault that she'd gone soft over these past years.

Gradually she'd let her guard down more and more... and even kissed him. The twisted expression he had when she told him that it'd never work out between them was still engraved deep into her mind. It just happened yesterday, but still... She couldn't bear to see him like that again. Ever again... But the secrets she held were to big to just tell them. They could ruin this entire friendship and possibly even turn him against her... That'd be her biggest nightmare.

 It's best to stay workmates... and only workmates.