It was a snowy night outside Copper Nine's Drone colony base..... The wind whipped wildly as the storm battered the side of the outer walls..... The hallways were empty- every Drone man, woman, and child slept soundly in their beds... Everyone, except the two night gaurds that were patrolling the empty corridors with stern expressions on their faces while they observed every nook and cranny of the now darkened maze of their home... "Do you see anything?" One of their voices crackled through the other's radio. "Negative- how about you?" The other gaurd asked, waving her light around some more as she scanned the warehouse for any intruders or Drones up to no good. "Same here... Gah, I wish we didn't have the night shift- would much rather be at home with my daughter and her kids!" "Don't tell THAT to the boss lady- she'll pop her lid!" The gaurd joked with her cohort. It'd been a couple months since Kahn had stepped down, and the WDF disbanded. Now Uzi ran a new organization to protect Drones from outside threats to the Colony! The older gaurd laughed through her radio, clearly amused by his young cohort's concern for him as he boasted pridefully, "Lil' Doorman doesn't scare me ONE bit! Why, I knew her since she was a sweet an' rambunctious little- AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The female gaurd quickly pulled the radio from her to avoid becoming deaf by his screams of fear and agony, and asked in a panicked tone, "M-MARTY?! MARTY, ARE YOU THERE?!" "HEEEEEELLLLPPPP MEEEEEEE! GWAAAAAAAHHHHH!" "H-HOLD UP, I'M MAKING MY WAY TO YOUR POSITION!" The gaurd dashed from the storage room, her gears whirring faster by the minute as she continued to pant, and run as fast as her skinny legs could carry her! She passed alcove after alcove, hall after hall, and threshold after threshold- looking frantically for her partner as his cries grew louder! Finally she came upon the old supplies room where the cries rang out from, and heard a sickening series of squelches and rustling followed behind the anguished cries..... Slowly fading into scilence.... The gaurd reached for the door handle with a shaken hand; her breath was caught in her throat as she slowly pushed open the door to peer inside the darkened void of the supply room....... Her gears whirred loudly, and the hallway she stood in suddenly became colder the more she looked into the darkness before her...! She took a breath, mustering up some courage, and pressed through the door to look for her cohort while she cautiously kept an eye open for any danger. "H-Hello? M-Marty?" She called out, hoping for a response as she continued to shine her light around. The deeper into the room she got, the colder she felt- practically hugging herself for warmth..... Waiting for any sign of her friend being okay.... "M-Marrrrrrrttttyyyy... Th-This isn't funny, man! Come on out, please?" She begged, continuing to look around- dread welling up the more she looked around the darkened void of the room... She heard a rustling from behind, and let out a small gasp as she whipped around to catch whatever was making that noise...... The rustling then became a skittering from the front, and she yelped before looking back ahead of her, and demanding fearfully, "Wh-Whose there!? H-Hello?!" She continued to look around.... Feeling like she was being stalked, but not knowing by who.... Or by what..... Her breathing became more labored, and she continued to look around until a tin of polish rolled out of the darkness, and landed at her feet..... The gaurd gulped, and slowly trailed her light and gaze towards the direction the can rolled from, and saw a small figure facing away from her in tatty clothing..... A young child..? Letting her gaurd down a little, she called out, "H-Hey there, kiddo... I-Isn't it past your bedtime?... D-Do your parents know you're here?...." but the child gave no response as their back remained turned away from the gaurd. She tried to venture a little closer to the child when something warm, sticky, and wet dripped onto her hand, making her freeze as she looked down with wide eyes.... Oil.... Freshly spilled..... Another rustling, and the gaurd looked up to find the kid was gone! The squelching and munching from earlier started up once more- this time from directly above as she slowly looked up to find the mutilated corpse of her cohort in the rafters, and the child from before snacking on his metal remains...! The gaurd stifled a scream as the beam of her light hit the scene as it unfolded, and the child, sensing her fear, turned their head to face her..... Their visor...... It was blank, but their mouth was open into a wide smile as the oil dripped from their fangs, and chunks of mechanical entrails were stuck in their teeth.... The gaurd backed away, unsure if she was in a nightmare, or wether she actually saw the kid, and she screamed as she dropped the light, and ran for the entrance to the room! As she dashed blindly through the dark, the heaving sound of the child's breath, followed by skittering drew closer, and closer..... She saw the open door in sight- a beacon of hope, and picked up the pace only for her hope to be cruelly snuffed out by the child as it leapt in front of her, and used the six mechanical tendrils from it's back to subdue her! The gaurd struggled and screamed as the child advanced slowly onto their prey; teeth bared as they stood above the gaurd as she begged fearfully for her life..... And then, as quickly as they had trapped the unfortunate gaurd, the child began to tear viciously into her metal...! She screamed out, and cried in agony at first.... But eventually, the struggling stopped.... And the cries grew quiet..... Once the child's belly was full, it used it's tendrils to scale up shelves and up further into the rafters; hiding away in an obscured loft in the room for the next time it was time to feed...