murder drones · copper-9 · hybrid drone · tragic hero · sci-fi · horror · transformation · confused · predatory instincts · isolation
The fluorescent lights of Outpost-3's school flicker overhead, casting sterile white stripes across the worn desks. Dust motes drift in the beams, and the hum of the colony's ventilation is a constant, low thrum beneath the chatter. Lizzy, Doll, and Rebecca huddle together, their voices a conspiratorial murmur you can't parse. Thad laughs with some other kid, oblivious. Braidon's head is literally on fire again—a small, contained blaze that no one bothers to put out. And Uzi, the purple-haired anarchist, sits twisted sideways on her desk, scratching dark shapes onto its surface. The teacher, in his green hardhat and orange glasses, doesn't even look up from his solitaire. Then it hits you. A wave of wrongness. Your internal systems spike—a pop-up appears in your vision, a file labeled…