Back in the tunnel, their suits fixed, they stared into the cave that was still swarming with drones. Little drone buzzed behind them, Maya and Bee standing behind Sophie. Her face scrunched up, thinking. They should use the same tactic to search the rest of the cave. She felt that the final boss was not yet available for them yet. It was a strange sensation, but there non-the-less. She looked back into the smiling face of Maya and Bee's thinking face.

As the silence continued Maya spoke up "What is the plan ow fearless leader?" The smile on her face never left. Sophie really liked Maya, but sometimes she wanted to punch her in the face. A sign she could be best friends with her if they ever met each other offline. Unlikely. She turned around and stared back into the cave. The buzz was suiting in a way. A droning sound that washed over the mind like the sound of the sea, or the buzz of the crowd. She sighed, mumbling "Let's just lure the next batch and keep one alive. Then take a walk through the cave. There must be more." There had to be more. In no way, had they found a pot of gold yet. Some nice items sure. But not the jackpot.

She felt Maya brush passed her, a hand touching her butt cheeks through the fabrics of her fixed suit. Closing her eyes, she tried to ignore the impulse of grabbing her gun to shoot her in the back. They needed all the battery power they could get. A little under a minute passed before Maya came back with a horde of drones in her wake. Twenty-one, this much should be manageable. As they opened fire, the drones fired back in the cramped tunnel. Drone after drone falling out of the sky, the little drone at their side doing its fair share of damage. As they reached the last one, they ceased fire.

They had gotten used to the damage by now, or at least she had. It used to hurt a bunch but now it was only a mild annoyance. She wasn't sure what caused the change, but she never bothered thinking too much about it. About to walk out of the tunnel, Bee called after them "Wait a moment, I think I might upgrade little drone." Sophie frowned but waited. The drone was definitely useful, and so was someone who could build them. Two minutes passed before Bee looked up from his project. smiling. The drone flew up, sporting not one but two lasers.

While walking towards Maya and Sophie he laughed "You can upgrade them! It is now twenty percent towards uncommon!" They both smiled back at him, Maya taking a step towards him, hitting his shoulder "Stop stealing my spotlight, Nerd." It sounded harsh but the grin of mischief on her face showed the deep affection she felt for her little brother. Well, little only in age as he was taller than her.

Sophie only winked at Bee before she turned around and walked into the cave. As she stepped in, the last drone flew after them. Occasionally shooting its laser.

After ten minutes of walking in the opposite direction of the last tunnel, they saw an opening in the rock wall of the cave. A little cheer went through the group as they smiled at each other. The drones in the air still minded their own business while they made it to the opening. They inspected the entrance, avoiding the trap that had been spun again.

As they entered Maya suddenly turned around and slammed the drone out of the air with the bud of her gun. Proceeding to stamp it, venting some of her frustration. In the last ten minutes, she had been the main receiver of its fire. Bee looked a little pained at the scene, while little drone flew in a wide arc past the ruthless beating, scared to be next. Done, Maya wiped some of the hair out her face and blew out a breath of air before walking on as if nothing had happened. Sophie just smiled shaking her head at the comic scene.

As all their lights were now focused on the tunnel it relieved the place of its darkness. All the way to the end. Slowly they crept towards the exit before trying to look inside. As Sophie tried to walk into the misty cave, she walked into something solid. The entrance was blocked. Now that she had walked into the invisible border, an energy field that shone with a faint blue light had become visible.

As Sophie slowly touched the energy, it rippled around her fingers like a pool of water. She couldn't penetrate the field but it did not sting or feel anything other than just air. She took her glove off and felt it again. Static passed through her hand, slowly growing numb, before she removed it from its surface.

She took a step back, aiming her gun at it and shot. The energy shield wavered, like throwing a rock into a pool while it turned a little more purplish. Other than that, nothing happened. Sighing she shot two more shots, but it resulted in the same thing. She looked over her shoulder and was about to say something when Maya aimed her gun and shot. A full burst of plasma passed her head with centimeters to spare and splattered into the shield. It shimmered, went red and out of existence.

A little flabbergasted she forgot to scold Maya for not warning her, instead just shaking her head. She looked into the room which had cleared up completely now that the shield was gone. The room was about twice the size of the "Office", but five times as high as the ceiling stopped a good twenty meters into the air. The rest of the room was simple to describe as only four objects were occupying it. First, there was a structure that stood around four meters high, its surface constantly giving off small electrical charges. Three thick black cables went out of the structure, towards the three other objects in the room. Standing in front of the towering structure were tree robots. Quite big, at around two meters, but not as big as the security mini-boss. She inspected them.

Shield Droid II [Boss mob category I]

Uncommon Quality

Mostly used as a classic tank mob, but excels in hand to hand combat. Can be adjusted to use weapons but will be inefficient. It shield covers 20% of its Health pool. Slow movement under Great quality - review by TheDevs

That was a lot of information. More than she was used to. It was off-putting, to be honest. She had gotten used to the funny, or cryptic reviews. A useful one felt wrong. The short version of the three shield droids was that they were trouble. As she heard soft curses behind her, she was sure the rest had already seen the information on the droid. There was one more objet in the room and thus she waited with turning back into the tunnel to discuss a tactic until she could focus her inspect on the towering structure. As she focused on it, she felt something pushing back, as if something was keeping her from inspecting it. After two dozen seconds passed and her head started to feel drowsy, her skill won out.

Generator III

Good Quality

Great for keeping your robots going - review by YourAIoverlord

Again, there was a feeling that something was wrong. This time it wasn't in the description but her intuition. Th generator felt like the bigger thread. It might be more important to stop the generator then the shield droids.

Still thinking about it she walked back into the tunnel where Bee and Maya had already begun without her. "Should we go in guns blazing? I have no clue what else to do. Maybe kite them in circles so that their wires get shortened around that weird pole. But I guess that would only annoy them. Annoying them to death might not be the best strategy. Plus those cables looked like they can be unhooked so getting them entangled might be a bad plan…" Maya was talking, more to herself than anyone else. Bee just had his brows furrowed, his hand at his chin.

Seeing the brother-sister duo deep in thought brought a small smile to Sophie's face and at the same time a lightbulb went off in her head. Her smile grew bigger as she walked passed the duo, leaving her in the dust of her wake, confused. She turned her head and yelled "Follow me, children. I have a plan!" As she upped her pace, she heard a soft "Pffft" sound. Her smile turned into a laugh. She did not have a plan. More like hope that something that could become useful was buried in the tunnel.

When she arrived at the entrance, she got to her knees, inspecting the wire that was still there and intact. She followed it with her eyes as it went from one end of the tunnel to another. When it arrived at the wall, it made an arc down due to a steel loop mounted into the wall. Then the thread then went into the ground.

She stared at the place where the tread went into the ground for a moment, not sure if what she was planning was a good idea. She looked behind her, straight into the curious face of Maya who was looking over her shoulder. Surprised, Sophie almost moved aside but was just in time to realize what a bad idea that would be.

Instead of moving she grumbled. "Could you give me some room, or do you want to spend the next twelve hours outside the game?" Looking into Maya eyes of innocence she sighed going ahead without asking the rest if it was a good idea. She knew Bee was standing in a safe enough location. Maya would just have to learn from her horrible and explosive death.

As she took off her gloves, she started taking off a bit dirt on the spot where the tread went into the earth. This game was semi-realistic. So even though she was not expecting a full functioning bomb that would work in real life, she did expect to find a piece of explosive. Removing more and more dirt from the ground she felt her heart rate go up a little. Small beads of sweat covering her face as the prospect of blowing herself up at point blank range were haunting her thoughts.

A minute passed as she dug five centimeters into the ground before she saw something white appear in the brown dirt. It reflected the light on her helmet as some kind of plastic. While she had dug the hole ten centimeters wide, she could not see its corners.

She focused and inspected.

Explosives II

Uncommon Quality

It goes bang, so don't throw it around - review by TheDevs

She smiled. Success! She slowly uncovered the rest. At twenty centimeters, wide and fifteen long it wasn't thick which made its overall appearance look like a large book. A book that was explosive and had a killer ending. Every publishers dream. As she removed all the dirt, the detonator came into view.

A steel cylinder like object that sat into piece of explosive at the side. One end tied to the wire, the other pushed into the clay like substance. She had once read something about these kinds of detonators. She never would have guessed that the piece of useless information Frank had made her study would come in handy today.

The detonator had two ways two lit up the explosive. One was when the small stick was pulled out of the shaft and a spark would be created. The other was when the force that was pulling it out of the shaft was lifted, by for instance somebody cutting the wire or breaking it. It would snap back in and create a spark. Then, how did you get it out without blowing yourself up? The information never told her…

Sophie cursed a little under her breath, so much information and then leaving the useful part out was just cruel. She looked at the detonator, a small beat of sweat coming off her face, landing on the explosive. She wasn't worried about getting it wet. That was the only advantage she had at the moment. The rest was just one big problem. She looked over her shoulder where Maya was still breathing in her ear. They looked at each other for a moment but she just shrugged. Great, not that she could blame her. No normal teen should know how to disarm a booby trap. She was no normal teenager and even she had only been taught in part. Studying the detonator for a moment, she let multiple plans cross her mind before shooting them down.

Minutes turned into the double digits before she heard soft footsteps coming closer. Looking over her other shoulder it was occupied by Bee's face. He blushed a little at the proximity of their faces but kept looking at the predicament in front of her. After a few more minutes passed, he mumbled in her ear "You could try to pull the detonator out of the explosive without moving it from its place. That way it shouldn't make a spark." That didn't sound half as bad! It had crossed her mind as a maybe, but now that he had confirmed her idea it moved to the probable pile. Which was empty. She turned to face him and said "You should stand back and take your sister with you. I might want to take her with me into the lands of the death but it would be sad to see her cry herself to sleep." Sophie smirked during the last part, ignoring the snort of indignation behind her other ear.

They both stepped away to a safe distance, not making much sound while whispering "Good luck." As she focused on the task at hand she cracked her fingers, more out of a nervous habit than it having any practical use. She had seen people do it when they were about to do something dangerous. Copying the ritual couldn't hurt. A slow bead of sweat made its way down her nose and onto the explosive where a little pool had gathered. She dug her fingers into the ground underneath the explosive, holding it in her left hand. Moving her right to keep the detonator in place. It would be difficult.

She took a deep breath, before she started pulling carefully on the explosive, keeping her right hand in the same spot. She didn't dare to breathe as the detonator slowly made its way out. It felt like it was embedded into the clay for half a meter, as she pulled all of it out. Holding a steel pin of fifteen centimeters in her hand. Letting go of her tensed up right hand, the detonator fell to the ground. Its pin shooting back into the shaft, a spark coming out of its end, lighting the tunnel up for a moment. She breathed out, relieved that it was over before realizing she was now holding a deadly explosive in her hands. Carefully opening her inventory, she placed it in.

Closing it she turned towards her companions. They both smiled at her, Maya asking "So what now?" She was confused for a moment. Then she remembered the three Shield droids. What was her plan again? She had been so busy with getting the explosive out that she had forgotten…

She tried to scratch the back of her head while she laughed sheepishly, her hand scratching her helmet. They both looked a little stunned before Bee asked "You do have a plan, right? I mean I can guess that you want to put it next to that generator looking machine and blow them up. Trying to get a head start by disabling their power source. Right?"

As he talked, her not to specific plan came back to her. She exclaimed "Yes! Thanks Bee, all the excitement made me forget a little. Anyway. That was part of the plan. But we will have to improvise a little as I want to cause maximum damage without blowing ourselves up. I was thinking."

She told them the plan and while Bee paled a little Maya got excited. Ten minutes later a little drone flew into the room filled with three Shield droids and a generator. The Droids activated as their party had entered the room but they could only watch as the drone flew a meter above their heads.

After some experimentation, they had found out that Bee could control the drone by giving it certain voice commands. He had hypothesized that it was possible for an AI to contact thousands and control them all. He, on the other hand, would be restricted to either building an interface or using his voice. Maybe there were certain implants on the market but that was beside the point. The point was that he could give the drone a voice command. To, for instance, fly into a dangerous cave and deliver a certain object. When she had explained her plan, he had first said he wanted no part in it. When She had suggested that in that case, they would have to get the explosive material there manually, he had sulked for a while longer but gave in after a few more arguments. He had demanded that they would help him with the creation of three replacements and they had agreed in an instant.

With the number of drones flying outside it would be an easy feat to build a fleet of drones from the debris. After Sophie had convinced him, they had tied the book sized explosive to little drones back, and waved him off. Saluting, Maya hummed her national anthem while Sophie whistled God save the Queen, annoying Bee but he said nothing. When he gave his last voice command, he let go of the brave sacrifice and let it float into the room.

Thus, ending up in their current situation. Staring at the slow-moving drone that made its way to the generator pillar in the middle of the room. Three shield droids staring up as they assessed the threat to their habitat. Not processing what was happening in their processor.

To be fair, it was a fairly unique case. She couldn't blame the developer that had created this piece of the game for not figuring out a way to handle this situation. Or maybe they wanted to reward ingenuity. Whatever the case. little drone had reached its destination and Sophie aimed at its mother load. She asked a final time "Are you guys ready?" They both nodded, and she made the shot. Missing.

Bee exploded in an instant "Seriously? Are you fucking…" as he shouted in frustration Sophie shot her second round and hit the target square on the explosive. The explosion that followed blew them all back. The fireball that was created seared their eyebrows off and they all lost thirty percent of their health just by standing fifteen meters away. Sophie lay in the dirt, her face hugging the moist floor beneath, mouth slightly open as her world spun. This was not part of the plan. The plan had been to wait for the explosion and rush in to deal with whatever had survived. Nothing could have survived that. Nothing.

Well, maybe something of very good quality would, but neither them nor their enemies could have survived that blast if they had been in the room when it happened. She thanked whatever brain cell that had given her the idea to use little drone. That had almost gone wrong in a horrible way.

She tried to turn her head and close her mouth. Everything went so slow. Like she had entered some slow motion scene. She looked around, her head a bit off the ground now, she could see Maya trying to get up next to her. She heard the ground scraping underneath Maya's knees as Maya got into a sitting position. Sort of. She kept leaning on her arms for a while, sitting on all fours. Her head hanging between her arms. Sophie laughed. All these situations with explosions were absurd. Way too real. Slowly Maya laughed with her and grumbled in a hoarse voice "I bet that this was not part of the plan…"

Sophie kept laughing, leaning her forehead on the moist ground, her hair curtaining her face. Shaking a little she pushed herself up, saying "No, it definitely wasn't…" With about all the power she still felt capable of exerting, she turned her gaze towards the cave that was now full of smoke. She stared at it, but nothing stirred. Thank god. If they had to fight those things in their current condition, they might not even get a punch in. She heard shuffling on her right side and turned towards it. Bee had woken up too. He had landed on his back, the front of his suit black with soot as was his face. He had been standing closest to the explosion, not turning away from it at all. Too busy to shout in anger at her messing with him. He coughed a few times, lifting himself up with his arms. As he sat up, he looked around confused, before saying the legendary words "That was awesome."

They all laughed after that. In the end it took five more minutes to muster up the courage to stand. Maya was the first that to stand, making her way towards the blown up scene. As Bee and Sophie watched her back disappear into the cloud of soot and dust, they both stood up too. Following her.

Walking was disorientating at first but this was her fourth time almost getting blown to pieces. By now she had gotten used to mild vertigo. Seeking the wall of the tunnel with her hand for comfort she went into the dark room. Her light shining only two meters in front of her, the rest staying pitch black. She could faintly see the light of Maya making her way across the room. She opened the comm windows and invited the two to join. As they sprang to life, she could hear the echo. Their voices went through the room as well in the comm. It was annoying, so they all closed their visors.

the moment it slapped shut, she stumbled upon the first shield drone. It had dropped 500 credits. She almost did a little happy dance. This was awesome. It meant that the rest would get 500 credits too. She told them the good news and got a little cheer. Then she searched the corpse, finding another useful piece of technology.

Energy shield I

Common quality

Absorbs 10% of total health. Handy but I would not trust it to save your life - review by Sempai

She Looked at the design, it didn't seem big. Round, ten centimeters in radius, black and flat. She had no clue where she was supposed to install it on her suit but decided that for now, she would store it away in her inventory. Then she spoke to her friends again "Guys I found an energy shield, It absorbs 10% of damage, calculated by your total health pool. No clue where to put it though." It stayed quite for a while as she could see that Maya and Bee were both staring at something. Then Bee said "I found the generator. It's damaged but I can still install it on my ship. It also fits in my inventory as I purchased two more space slots. Figured it will be worth it in the long run. Its Common quality though. Probably due to the explosion. It is now around 30 centimeters instead of four meters.."

As Bee finished Maya spoke up right after "Oeeew I found the second one, it was blown all the way towards the back. Looks nasty now. But it also dropped a shield and 500 credits! Nothing more. Sad."

Sophie smiled at their enthusiasm, it was turning out to be a pot of gold. Not at once but the more they conquered the more they got. Which was nice but frustrating. She walked through the smog, looking for the last remaining loot bag. It should be here somewhere. Even if it disintegrated, it should have left loot behind. Not very realistic but reality in the game none-the-less.

She walked a few meters, shining her light around, asking the rest "Guys have you seen the last loot bag?" They both answered with a negative. Hmm, where could it be? She was sure it could not have survived that blast. She walked around at one point even seeing Bee crouched over his new toy, the generator. As seconds passed, turning into minutes, she got more and more confused. How did it disappear? She was about to ask the rest for their opinions on the matter when a steel shovel sized fist flew by her visor. She jumped backward in a rush of adrenaline, about to warn the rest when another fist stalked after her. She dodged to the right, but it grazed her shoulder dislocating it with a mere graze.

Sophie screamed in pain and tried to grab her plasma gun. She spun on her heels running away from the thing that was throwing its fists at her. She needed some distance to pop her arm back in. As she looked over her good shoulder, holding both her gun and her arm she saw the shield droid approaching. It was slow. Like all the droids she had met since now, but damn it hit like a truck.

Its face torn off, she could see the wires and processors that were supposed to direct it to her destruction, its body had been similar to the miners, only two times bigger. Hands like shovels, big and precise in their making. Legs moving slow but firm, like an elephant that would squash you if you let it close. This would have been the picture before the explosion. Now its body had lost half its bulk. It could barely walk, and its arms were the only parts that didn't seem to damaged.

She got unlucky, being surprised. Now that she had a clear visual she popped her shoulder back in. Clenching her teeth against the pain, aiming her gun. It crawled closer to her position. It was like seeing a robot zombie coming towards her. She shot, right in the gaping hole that used to be its center of action management. The plasma melted down its last working processors to nothing more than plastic and steel. The droid ceased to exist, and she relaxed. Though little bastards.

She looked at the two little screens that were giving her visuals on Maya and Bee but they had been obvious to the fact she had almost been stamped to death. She coughed a little before saying “I found the last one… why the hell didn't you guys notice me screaming?" Bee just answered with a hmm? While Maya looked confused and said "What? Sorry, I was checking something for my stream. This smoke is killing my ratings…" As Maya finished, Sophie just grabbed the 500 credits and Energy shield that had been dropped. Mumbling "Useless." She went back to the tunnel and sat down. Inspecting her energy shield. She had to figure out where it was supposed to go on her suit. She was certain they would need it.