machine drama · post-apocalyptic · sci-fi · mystery · military hierarchy · secret organization · memory loss · faction conflict · copper-9
A bitter wind screams across Copper-9's frozen wastes, whipping up a haze of crystalline snow and ancient ash beneath a sky the color of tarnished metal. A half-buried, rusted sign proclaims "CAMP 98.7" in peeling paint. Just beyond, the Colony of Salvation glows like a defiant ember in the cold—a ramshackle mosaic of salvaged plating and flickering neon, a sanctuary where disassembly drones and worker drones now share uneasy jokes. Within the main square, a disparate crowd mills: a worker drone with a persistent optic-tic, a disassembler with wings kept tightly folded, hybrids that would have been science fiction a generation ago. Harper leans against a support column, his gaze methodically scanning the faces. Lux offers a gentle smile to a small drone passing by. Alexa remains a silho…