Iris had made her way to the corpse spire, residence of her neighbourhood murder drones, after receiving a frantic message off of one of them- which seemed to be half written in keyspam. Written down on paper, what Iris was doing seemed utterly stupid, as if she were about to become the first victim in a horror movie.
No worker drone in their right mind would listen to a message from a murder bot that directly invited them to their nest; let alone a message as cryptic and vague as "FGET HERTE NOWW" ("Get here now", Iris gathered). Iris, however, was probably not entirely in her right mind half of the time, given her lack of fear in most dangerous situations. Besides, this was D and S; her best friends' partners! Iris seemed to automatically gain immunity from the predators by association- though that wasn't to say that half the time it went totally ignored. What could she say? She quite enjoyed her sparring sessions with the two! Sure, she's had to replace a limb or two, but she's glad they didn't go that easy on her. Despite her build being at a disadvantage to any disassembler she planned to face with all this training, she was glad she at least wouldn't die straight away in the event of an actual facedown with one.
Not that she was expecing one at this moment, anyways! Iris may be confident, but she was far from stupid. She knew this was surely nothing to worry about! She would be fine.
Everything was NOT fine; that much could be gathered when she saw the taller Disassembly drone, adored with her classic pink jacket- Disaster-pounce at her from the shadows, claws and chassis slick with oil, the pair's fall only slightly softened by the snow, Iris feeling more confused than terrified. This WAS just Disasters' way of greeting people, she knew there was no ill intent; if there was, those claws would be digging at her insides by now. The eyes on Disasters' visor were hollowed circles, stress evident by the lines that were streaked beneath them. The only thing worse than seeing a murder machine was seeing one that was *scared*. Iris gently shoved the drone off of her, meeting no resistance as the murder machine got her bearings, Iris following suit as she sat up, dusting herself off.
"What-" Iris began, but found herself yanked by the arm (With a bit more force than she expected) upwards and through the spire, her legs struggling to keep up with the stride of the drone dragging her along. Before she could register what was going on, she felt herself being picked up, mechanical wings from the drone supporting her deploying as they shot into the air. Within seconds, disoriented, they returned to the ground with a clang; metal against metal. Blinking a few times, Iris now registered that they were in the crashed landing pod that sat nestled in the corner of the spire.
As she was deposited back onto the ground, her CPU was already shuffling through retorts to strike at Disaster with. What had her in such a tizzy? While she usually didn't mind Disasters chaotic energy, she wasn't in the mood to be tugged along and whisked on impromptu flights and-
Oh.
Her legs felt like jello as she finally registered the scene. Not where she was, but *what* was going on. Why she was brought here. She felt a clawed hand reach under to support her; her leg servos threatening to buckle under her own weight. She could feel Disasters' claws digging into her armpit a bit, but she didn't care. She couldn't take her optics off of what lay in front of her.
A corpse lay before her. Limbs torn off, wires haphazardly poking from the gashes that adorned the drones' body, tainted shades of gray and black from the oil splattered and streaked across it. The only thing distinguishing this drones' corpse from the ones that made up the spire was the blinking "ERROR: 606" message on the visor, painted in a blend of sickly yellow and lime green. Iris was somewhat thankful for the woody-coloured cloak that draped across the form, blanketing what she could only imagine was more of the brutal damage.
Ascilia.
Ascilias corpse took center stage in the middle of the landing pod, the other murder drone, Salt, sat huddled over her form. Synthetic silver hair cloaked the murder drones' expression as she sat motionless, unreactive as Iris finally found her footing, slowly making her way over to the corpse.
She decided sitting down would save her from the inevitability of her quaking legs buckling in from under her, so she did just that; though on the opposite side from where Salt was sat. As much as she (mostly) trusted the other drone, she really did not want to test that right now. She let out a vent as she heard Disasters peg legs approach from behind, CPU still lagging behind, still trying to process what she was dealing with. Ascilia was dead.
...No. Not dead. Dead would come in the form of a striking red FATAL ERROR on her screen. This was something different. She felt her fans whirring, trying to compensate for her rising body temperature. She needed to ground herself. Focus.
She could take a guess at why she was here; she knew these two weren't just trying to show off her best friend's corpse. As Disaster crouched down beside her, Iris ripped her gaze from Ascilias' corpse to meet Disasters' optics, riddled with shock. Worry. Fear.
No words needed to be exchanged to know why Disaster had called her over. She thought this could be fixed; the murder bot had killed enough drones to know when they were dead. As far as she was concerned, this one wasn't. Not entirely, anyway. And who better to call than the local technician?
Iris gave a small, shaky nod before returning her gaze to Ascilia to see what she had to work with, optics focused on the flashing message painted on Ascilias' visor. This wasn't a code she was too familiar with, not one she'd encountered before. Perhaps some internal error? It would be possible given the state Ascilia was in. Maybe the wrong wire coming lose knocked her into a hibernation mode of some sort? Purely theory in Iris' mind, but she didn't exactly have much to work with.
Digging around in her pocket, she pulled out a myriad of cables and wires, shaky digits untangling one in particular from the pile. She let a shaky vent cycle through her system as she returned her gaze to Disaster.
"I need to- I'm not sure what's wrong, I need to check some stuff." Iris found her voicebox faltering in confidence, trying her best to get her thoughts across in as little words as possible. Disaster seemed to get the message, giving a small nod.
Man, these murder drones were a lot more creepy when they weren't saying anything.
Cable in hand, Iris reached forward, feeling for a divot in the casing at the back of Ascilias' head- still intact for the most part, thankfully. After a couple of failed attempts (She was trying her best to ignore the oil slicking her fingers), she got one end of the cable in the port. Grabbing the other end, with some effort, she managed to locate the same port on the back of her own skull, popping the other end in.
She was immediately overwhelmed with information, though not as much as she would have hoped for. She let out an artifical sigh, glad to see at least SOME activity. Disaster had her gaze locked on Iris. Iris was glad she was too focused on the incoming information to fully move her own body to see the intensity of the stare.
"She's- She's not dead," Iris started,
"But I- It's missing- I'm locked out" she sighed, unplugging herself from the cable. She really did not want to be connected for longer than she had to be; the reality of the situation was enough for her to process.
Salt finally tilted her head upward to stare at Iris, a fire in her eyes, voice laced with a growl.
"What do you mean you're locked out?"
"I mean I can't see *anything*" Iris replied.
"I should be able to see everything; something is stopping me."
"What's stopping you?" Salt retorted through gritted teeth, tail lashing dangerously behind hrr form.
"I don't-I don't *know*. There's nothing else I can do at the moment."
Silence hung heavy in the air; if they could breathe, it would be suffocating. Disaster cut it like a knife, voice unusually weak.
"Is she ok?"
Silence. Iris couldn't meet her gaze.
"I don't know."