Project Codename: PILLAR

[Thexare]

Another day saw OCS Save Yourself hovering near the Pillar, and the Dorado-class ferry Green River drifting into the dock. Upon landing, the Green River's aft door opened, and eight bipedal drones marched out. The drones were heavily based on the standard service robots used on many small outposts, but had remote-control functionality added to override the onboard basic automated functionality.

"Shiranui, first deployment complete. Standing by," said a voice through Save Yourself's comm system.

"Sundog, acknowledged," the blonde operating half the drone controls replied. The same arrangement was used as with the Mellori recon on the previous visit, but revised due to the different drone systems in use. Each monitored four drones, with one designated as the lead and the other three set to automatically follow in formation, preserving the same near-360° vision the Mellori drones provided. This time, though, the two squads moved with distinct purpose rather than general exploration. Evelynn's squad moved toward the floor's administration controls, and Victor's to the elevator.

The administration room was barely distinguishable from any other on the floor, its only distinct feature being a console built into the wall which Evelynn's drones dutifully marched toward. Typing wasn't in the programming for the drone's movement, so using the console involved laboriously hunting and pecking with one finger. "This is absurd. I'm controlling a drone and stuck typing like this."

"Safest way to do it," Darren said. "A direct code interface would expose the drones to potential viruses."

"I know, but it's just so weird. Almost as weird as these systems being so familiar. Who built this thing?"

"I sometimes wonder," Victor mused as his drones waited by the elevator, "if this cultist tech is like ours, or if ours is like theirs. What did Ageira find on Manhattan..."

"Alright, looks like you can reactivate... some of the base," Darren said, reading the display over Evelynn's shoulder. "Not much, the reactor's pretty weak. It doesn't seem to be particularly damaged, just drained. Should be easily fixable. Let's do the elevator and one level up, that should be well within its capacity."

Evelynn followed Darren's instructions and, in a few minutes' time, the elevator doors opened behind... in front of... in the vicinity of Victor's drone squad. Their march into the elevator was a little clumsier than Evelynn's squad, but without incident. The elevator itself moved slowly, but steadily, subtly picked up some speed. About one minute of elevator travel later, the doors opened. Another dimly-lit floor greeted Victor, with a layer of dust over everything. Floor, walls, ceiling, and lights. This place had been abandoned for some time. As with the entry level, there seemed to be little equipment here to point to any particular purpose, and without the docking bays it became harder to determine one. Hallways led to smaller rooms, perhaps administrative offices, At the end of the first corridor, the room to the squad's right had something in the corner. Victor guided the drones in and turned on their lights.

"That's.. Huh. That's unexpected."

"What is," Evelynn asked flatly, focused on monitoring the console in front of her lead drone.

"A pile of corpses."