Chapter Text
Copper-9. A planet known for its main source of, well, copper. A resource humans need in order to make many things, mostly around electricity. And of course, in order to get that copper, someone’s gotta mine it. And who better than their very own personal labor-bots; The Worker Drones.
Clink! Clank! Click!
Those very said creations slave away at various mines all across the planet. Pickaxes, drills, shovels, and more tools erode the rocks in the way of the valuable minerals. Heavy, copper-filled carts are pushed along rail tracks, large crates are hauled on the backs of the robots, and conga lines pass material along from one destination to another.
Thud!
“Greg died!” And the presence of death from their mining ventures is nothing more than a spare note on some human’s end-of-day report.
“Just ignore it and keep working! It’ll be cleaned up!” Or– Sorry. It’ll be a note on a Disassembly Drone’s end-of-day report. “And you! Stop staring and keep moving! You still have ores to mine!”
A whip snaps at Uzi’s feet. She recoils just in time to save her steel-toed boot a fierce lashing. With a huff, she picks up her pickaxe and makes her way back into her tunnel. She lowers her goggles back over her visor and hauls the tool over her head, chipping away at the rocky wall.
Sweat drops litter her visor as she works. Each swing of her tool comes with a small grunt of effort. Tiny pebbles fall at her feet while the sounds of working peers continues in the background. As Uzi chips away at the wall, she slowly unearths yet another piece of orange-brown and green ore.
She has to force the darn thing out with her hands once it comes loose enough. Uzi then dumps it into a cart for later transportation. A fellow slave-laborer comes by to assist with a drill.
The loud, whining whir of the tool has long become just another mindless cacophony to tune out as she works. Uzi plucks out the copper ores as they’re unearthed and loosened from the stone. Dirt, grime, dust, and grease smear onto her clothes in dark splotches. Uzi’s hair is similar, as is her plating.
Then again, it’s not like she gives a shit. Everyone basically wears the same thing, give or take a few accessories given by humans who fancy them or the wigs they managed to acquire from the same human hands. It’s the same-old miner’s coat with the same-old helmet and the same-old sturdy boots and same-old blank expression they wear every. Darn. Day.
Uzi huffs as she lifts the last piece of copper ore that’ll fit safely in the cart. “I’m going to take this up to the surface. I’ll bring over another cart.” She notifies her peer.
All she gets is a grunt and nod in return. Uzi leaves for all of five minutes to grab an empty cart to bring over. She’s gone again with the filled cart, using all her strength to push the heavy object out onto the tracks in the main tunnel system.
She follows behind other Worker Drones just trying to get through the day, same as her. While moving through the cave system, Uzi avoids making optic-contact with the Disassembly Drones watching over them like hawks. She can feel their stares on them enough as it is, she doesn’t need to see it for herself on top of that.
Bright light starts to peer in from the cave’s entrance. Uzi pushes her cart harder to make it up to the facility building housing the entrance. A few humans are stationed in rooms higher up to monitor the planet and mining operations further down below.
Uzi can finally catch her vents when she’s pushed the cart all the way to the required track. She swipes a few sweat drops from her visor, probably smearing some grime along it, too.
“Wooaaahh! It looks so cool in here!” Some boy’s voice exclaims excitedly.
“Yeah, it sure does– But can you calm down and stop running around!?” A familiar Australian girl’s voice cries after the boy.
Uzi turns over to two young humans running around the mining facility. A young boy probably no older than 10 or 11 gawks at the large building. A teenager Uzi’s meet a few times chases after him, finally grabbing a hold of his collar.
“Stop running, Damien! You’re going to knock into something, or fall, or some other third thing!” The teen scolds sternly.
“Aw, but Tessa! I wanna see the building!” Damien whines as he wriggles in her grip.
“You will, but only when you stop causing a commotion!” Tessa argues back, holding the boy by the shoulders. “If you keep running around, you’re going to break something or distract the Worker Drones! They need to do their job!”
Damien whines again, gaze flicking around. Uzi rolls her lavender optics and starts off back towards the mines. Damien perks up upon seeing her haul another cart back towards the mines.
“I wanna see the mines!” The boy suddenly shouts.
“No! The mines are dangerous, even with the Disassembly Drones keeping watch! You’re staying up here where we can keep a better eye on you!” Tessa retorts firmly, tightening her grip on him.
“But Tessaaaa!! I wanna see the Worker Drones mining and stuff!!” Damien’s limbs begin thrashing around. “If I’m gonna be head of this place one day, I need to see the minessss!!”
“Well, you can’t right now! You can just watch the robots coming up to drop off ores!” Tessa refutes as she turns Damien away.
Uzi stops listening in on their conversation as she heads back into the mines. She’s got work to do, and she doesn’t feel like getting dismantled today because some twerp’s was distracting her—not that the Disassembly Drones would take that excuse.
‘Whatever. Not my problem, anyway. Nor do I want him to be.’ The worker thinks to herself as she walks away.
But she’s stopped by a human’s hand landing on her shoulder. “You, Worker Drone. Go and give that boy a quick tour of the place, will you? Maybe it’ll stop his damn whining.” He says curtly, clearly just as displeased with Damien’s fussing.
Uzi’s expression falls and she holds in the annoyed growl. She turns on her heel to put the cart back and head over to Tessa. She and the boy she’s shadowing perk up upon her approach.
“Good afternoon, Miss Tessa, Miss Tessa’s… Friend.”
“Cousin.”
“Miss Tessa’s cousin. My designation is 210, also known as Uzi. I have been told to give you a tour of the facility.” She greets monotonously yet obviously irritated.
Damien shouts in joy, much to Uzi’s chagrin. Tessa’s posture deflates.
“You’re kidding…” She murmurs.
“The higher-ups want him to shut up.” Uzi points to the small boy.
“Can I, Tessa?! Can I, can I, can I, can–!!!” Damien begins to jump.
“Yes, fine! But we’re following behind Uzi the entire time, and you’re not leaving my sight!” Tessa points sternly.
Damien cheers loudly, causing some humans to grumble. One yells from across the room for him to be quiet, to which Damien flinches. But he’s eager nonetheless, looking to Uzi to begin the tour.
Said Worker Drone sighs, barely keeping it from turning into a groan. She turns with a half-assed wave for them to follow. Damien is directly behind Uzi while Tessa groans for the drone. Uzi so wants to say ‘Tell me about it…’ in return.
“Us Worker Drones do like, 90% of all the hard labor. If not all of it. We’re in here from the crack of dawn to the crack of night, whenever that is.” Uzi speaks disinterested as she leads Tessa and Damien through the mines. “The Disassembly Drones–”
“OH! OH! The Disassembly Drones keep watch over you to make sure you’re doing your job!” Damien jumps from foot-to-foot.
“Yep. Every day.” Uzi rolls her optics.
She catches sight of a said higher-up robot harshly scolding some minors for—what she assumes is accidentally—breaking some equipment. As soon as the whip comes out of his conical forearm, Uzi’s spinning the boy around towards somewhere else.
“Why don’t we go check out some of the amenities that us Worker Drones use?” She asks as she tunes out the lashing the other workers receive.
“Yeah! I wanna see them!” Damien bounces again.
Uzi leads them away, introducing the boy to some of the amenities the Worker Drones use. Mostly storage sheds for tools, closet for spare clothes, and a refueling room that’s also overseen by Disassembly Drones.
After that comes more wandering around and minimal, half-assed detailing of the goings-on in the mines. Damien is ever-eager, soaking up the information like a sponge. Tessa still has to reel him in when he gets too excited and tries to run off.
By the time the tour ends, the Worker Drones have already packed up and left for the day, some Disassembly Drones escorting them. Uzi sighs as she packs up her own equipment for tomorrow’s work and heads up to the main facility to clock out.
Just before she gets too far from the mines, Damien jogs up to her again. “You! Thank you for the tour today!” He exclaims chipperly.
“Yeah, sure. You’re welcome, I guess.” Uzi replies flatly, trying to move past him.
“Are you going back to your barrack-thing?!” The boy wonders as he follows.
“Yep.” Uzi pops the ‘p.’
“Ohh! Let me take you back!” The boy starts running off before she can stop him.
“I know my way back, but thanks.” Uzi goes off in a different direction.
Damien stops to stare at her. He begins to pout as the robot wanders away.
“I said I’ll take you back! That’s an order!” He shouts in frustration.
Uzi halts. Things go silent between the two. Not even a gust of wind breaks it. But Uzi eventually does, letting out a tired sigh.
“Fine.” She spits as she turns around.
“Hooray! This way, this way!” Damien starts to run off again.
“H-Hey! Don’t run off!” Uzi shouts after him, giving chase.
Damien just laughs. Uzi growls as she catches up. The wintry woodwork passes by the two as they slow into a jog. Damien giggles as he heads towards the barracks, following a dirt path. Uzi huffs as she follows, unable to say much.
‘Where’s Tessa? Wasn’t she babysitting him today or something?’ A brow quirks on the robotic woman’s visor. ‘And where are we heading? The barracks are the other way, aren’t they? Unless we’re taking a longer route.’ Her optics flick around at her surroundings.
There’s no markers indicating they’re heading towards the Worker Drone barracks. A nervous sweat drops blinks onto Uzi’s visor. She looks back to Damien who’s as chipper as ever leading them through the forest. Streetlamps light the path as the sun sets beyond the trees.
‘Maybe I’ll end up at the kid’s house. Worst-case scenario; I’m scolded and sent back to the barracks on my own. Best-case; I get to stay in a warm mansion for a night before being kicked out.’ A small smirk forms on Uzi’s lips at the thought. ‘That’d be nice, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, humans aren’t that kind.’
“Here we are!” Damien exclaims jovially.
Uzi perks back up only for her eye lights to go void. Her bag nearly slips off her shoulder. Meanwhile, Damien jogs closer and opens the gate for Uzi to step through.
“Come on! It’s getting dark!” The said child beckons eagerly.
Uzi blinks at him. She blinks at the barn-looking barracks. She blinks at the boy again.
‘These are not my barracks!’ She wants to shout.
But if she did that, she might hurt the pathetic thing’s feelings, and thus be punished as consequence. Uzi does not feel like being scrapped today—or any day, really—and just goes along with the boy’s demands. Damien closes the gate behind her and locks it up.
“There you go! Now you can get some rest, robot!” Damien exclaims.
“B-But–” Uzi raises a finger to counter.
“What’s goin’ on here? Shouldn’t ya be with yer parents, kid?” A new masculine voice speaks up.
The two shorter beings turn to a taller robot. He’s decked out in everything Southern and/or cowboy. But what stands out about him most are the bull horns and ears on his head and the bull tail hanging off the back of his hips. An ear is even pierced with a bright yellow tag on it, stamped with a big, bold “N.”
“Hi, Mr. Cowboy Robot!!” Damien waves excitedly. “I brought back this robot for you! She was leaving late!”
The Cowboy turns to Uzi. She just shakes her head. The male drone scratches his head as his tail sways in thought, a similar look mixed with confusion crossing his face plates.
“I didn’t know I was supposed to be gettin’ a new heifer today…” He murmurs to himself.
“I have to go home now. Thank you for the tour, Ms. Robot!” Damien speaks up again, turning his attention to Uzi. “Goodnight! Sweet dreams!” He waves as he jogs off.
“Oi! Go straight home, kid!” The Cowboy hollers after him before sighing. “Oy vey, I really don’t need to be gettin’ in trouble with his folks…” He then mutters as a sweat drop glides down his visor.
He then turns back to Uzi. She’s completely mute in his presence. Mostly because he’s an even higher-up compared to the usual Disassembly Drones watching workers like her like hawks.
“Uhm, mind sharin' yer name with me, darlin'?" He inquires politely.
Uzi startles. “I-It’s Designation 210, code name Uzi, Sir.” Is she too monotonous right now? She feels like she’s too monotonous right now.
“Well, nice to meet’cha, Uzi! The designation’s N!” The Cowboy holds out his hand to shake.
The Worker Drone stares dumbly at it. Hesitantly, she takes it to shake. N’s grip is firm and his shake is bouncy.
“Looks like you’ll be part of the herd from now on! I’ll be sure to get ya acquainted with everyone tomorrow! And to get all yer information in the books!” N lets her hand go, giving her a warm grin. “Fer now, why don’t ya go and hit the showers? Pardon my rudeness, but ya look rode hard and put up wet!” A more nervous grin crosses his metallic features.
That has Uzi blinking dumbly at him. N resets his voice box behind a fist and turns her around with a gentle push to her back.
“L-Let me show ya to the showers to get washed up, darlin’.” He says, guiding her away.
“Uh– Right…” Uzi can only nod.
If she says she’s not supposed to be here, she won’t get punished, right? It’s just a misunderstanding, so she surely won’t be reprimanded or sent for scrap, right?!
‘Right!?!’ Uzi frets as sweat drops cascade down her display.