Override

DATE: Year 315-A. Sol 12

LOCATION: Pluto Underground Complex (Vault Sector)

The Primary Core was heavy as Lijo wrenched it out. The moment the copper pins cleared the master socket, the station went silent

The chamber plunged into absolute dark, save for the pale, cold blue emission from the display of his jury-rigged bypass slate and the tiny amber countdown on his visor.

-Vessel 44-Sigma. Signal loss from asset primary processor, the WIP voice blared in his ear. Automated diagnostic sequence failing. Structural stabilization offline. Operator Lijo, you are outside parameters.

-I’ve got the asset, Lijo said, straining to slide the freezing core block onto his mechanical lift-dray. Just keep your shirt on.

-Negative. No shirt. Remote command is overriding manual clearance.

A sudden, high-pitched squeal echoed from the lift shaft behind them. Lijo spun around. Two levels up, the silhouette of a heavy WIP automated maintenance drone was descending through the structural framework.

-Kora! Lijo shouted, his breath crystallizing into thick frost inside his mask. The scrap-bots are coming down!

Kora was jammed halfway into the basalt vault, shoving the final box of hardened data-chits past the threshold.

-Three beats! she yelled back, her voice muffled. I just need to engage the physical relay at the back of the shelf!

Lijo checked his tool-belt, his fingers wrapping around the handle of his industrial high-torque wrench.

The static in his headset surged, the automated voice from the ship relay twisting into a repetitive loop.

-Clear the line. Purge sector. Clear the line. Purge sector.

The drone hit the deck plating twenty paces away with a heavy, metallic crunch. Its sensor optics flared a bright, red, locking instantly onto Kora’s silhouette in the vault doorway.

-Brute force attack, my ass, Lijo muttered to himself, stepping between the machine and the stone.

He unclipped the bypass slate from his belt and hurled it straight into the drone's primary sensor cluster. The glass shattered and the machine lurched violently to the left, its claws snapping blindly into the empty, frozen air.