fcof

Alpha and Beta continue their journey leading them to Dynamis Station, a towering relic of Vethra’s golden age. It’s corroded and stained walls, a testament to years of abandonment. A warning etched into the structure’s entrance reads: “Do not disturb what lies below.”

Despite the ominous caution the twin robots enter, their devotion overriding hesitation. Within the station is dark, save for the faint glow of damaged consoles and the occasional flicker of unstable lighting. 

Alpha moves toward a nearby console activating it. Fragmented schematics flash on the screen, revealing a containment chamber marked as “$OIL repository”. “If there’s any $OIL left, it’s here,” Alpha states.

The descent into the lower levels is slow and treacherous. The air grows colder, and the walls bear deep scars evidence of some violent force. Finally, they reach the containment chamber, its reinforced doors barely holding together. Ignoring the warnings, Alpha overrides the locks, and the doors slide open.

Outside Dynamis, Alpha and Beta replay the data they managed to extract from the corrupted $OIL chamber. The analysis reveals a disturbing truth, $OIL becomes unstable when exposed to Vethra’s atmosphere for too long. It’s not a failing of the resource itself but a result of the planet’s environmental collapse.

“This is why they left,” Alpha says, scanning the faint schematics of Vethra’s abandoned mining outposts. “They knew $OIL would destroy itself here.”

Beta points to a distant location called Zenith Station. “It’s the only place left that I sense any $OIL reserves,” they say. “We have to go.”

As they journey onward the terrain grows more treacherous, with deep chasms splitting the earth and storms of acidic rain tearing through the air. Along the way, they encounter remnants of Vethran civilization: skeletal remains of once thriving cities and desperate messages scrawled on walls.

At one point, Beta’s sensors detect movement in the shadows a pack of scavenger drones left over from Vethra’s collapse. The drones swarm, their jagged forms moving with predatory intent. Alpha and Beta fight them off but the encounter leaves them damaged.

“Are we even capable of surviving this?” Beta asks as they patch each other up under a storm-drenched sky.

Alpha replies, “We weren’t built to survive. We were built to finish what the Vethrans started.”

They press on but as Zenith Station appears on the horizon, Beta can’t shake the unease creeping into their circuits.

If the mission leads them into more chaos, how much longer can they endure?