The Fourth Drone

Exploring Depths Unknown

X and J had returned to the Corpse Spire after a short flight and landed inside. They saw things seemed to be going alright and J went back to the pod, while X looked for N and Uzi. He sensed N's signal just outside the Spire and followed it to see Uzi and N with another worker drone. X began walking up to them and saw Uzi with her railgun again and assumed the worker had brought it to her.

Thad was their name, he believed, and they conversed about recent things that had been happening in the colony until they saw X walking towards them. N waved to X with a smile. "Hi X! Welcome back! You and J were gone for a while!" X nodded. "Yeah, there was a massive toxic ice storm that passed over us in the wastes that would've frozen our wings. So we just stayed in my old pod."

N nodded in understanding and X looked at Uzi and Thad. "So, how are things back at the Colony Thad? Hopefully not horrible since our departure. " Thad shook his head. "Things have been pretty crazy. Like I told Uzi, I don't even think the colony is serious about the banishment stuff and they are just confused. Especially with sudden disappearances. A lot of the students at school have been going missing lately."

X held a hand to his chin in thought and looked at Uzi and N. "Hey Uzi, why don't you and N go take a look around and see if you can figure this out. I'm gonna stay back and look after V and J, I'll probably take a crack at fixing the pod as well." Uzi nods and N takes off with Thad and Uzi towards the bunker while X turns and goes back to the Corpse spire.

Once he gets back, he enters the pod and leans against a wall and sighs. V and J noticed his appearance and his mood when he entered. V spoke up about it, seeming concerned rather than resentful due to still being in chains. "What's up with you? You don't ever seem stressed, maybe you need to kill off a few workers!" J rolled her eyes at V's antics. "Not including that last part, you do seem stressed, what's up?"

X looked at them with a somber expression. "There have been disappearances at the worker colony and while that doesn't bother me much, it's happening right after we left. That concerns me." X took a hand to his chin in thought, then decided to do something to clear his mind. "Hey J, you said you had orders after making the Spire when you got here right?" J looked at him questioningly. "Yeah, why?"

He looked at her with curiosity. "What was the second step? I believe you may have told me, but I can't recall." J's hand becomes a hologram projector and shows a two-step plan that was ordered for them to follow. "Step One: Clear drop zone of life and construct Spire. Step Two: Enter Labs with this symbol." She showed an image of a symbol of a skull with what seemed to be trees behind it and X logged it into his memory bank.

As he logged it, he looked at J. "Send me the location you were given for these labs, I'm gonna go do some exploratory research." J wanted to protest but decided not to. He seemed serious about this, so she sent him the location she was given via squad link. X received the location and smiled. "Thanks J, I'll be back later. Keep the place in one piece while I'm gone." J looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Like anything actually gonna happen. Be safe out there, alright?"

X gave a small salute to her with a smirk. "Yes ma'am." She blushes slightly as he then leaves the pod and walks to the outside of the Spire. Once he walks outside, he looks into the night sky, still early in the night. That was good, he didn't want to have to go back in the sun. 

While he had slightly more resistance to the sun, it still hurt like nothing else. X often found himself staring into the night sky. When you don't take the planet itself being desolate, it's actually beautiful.

Shaking his head, he refocused on his objective. 'Focus X, find the labs and find anything that could be of use.' He deploys his wings and flaps them down with a massive amount of force and launches into the sky, making his way to the hidden labs.