Joyce was trying her best to control her temper. Orientation had gone smooth enough, just a presentation going over equipment and objectives. What she expected. What she didn’t anticipate was Captain Mikasa having everyone meet their partners and go on an impromptu expedition. She was annoyed enough by her own choice of clothes, they weren’t expedition appropriate. Then she finds out her partner has an attitude. The same partner Joyce was now following out of the colony. Neither of them spoke.

Perhaps she too doesn't like the changes going on lately, Joyce thought in an attempt to empathize. 

Truth be told the red eyed drone was in a foul mode when Joyce approached her. Not to mention Joyce was in attire more appropriate for an office than the wilderness. She probably would have been annoyed if she was handed a recruit seeming that unprepared. 

Watching the drone with mish mashed parts angrily stomp down the road Joyce came to a realization. She recognized this drone. Joyce couldn’t place her name so started to refer to her as Red in her own head. Red had joined the colony a few months after she had. Still looking like a drone that had been frankensteined together from various drone models. In the few years she’d been in the colony she never got properly repaired.

Joyce searched her SSD in an attempt to remember past interactions she’d had with Red. They had passed by each other that's for sure. Her appearance was quite memorable. Her eyes widened in surprise when she finally recalled where they met. 

It was in the classroom. Joyce had attended many classes over the two year journey to Robigus in an attempt to fill out the gaps in her education. She didn’t need to take math or language classes as she had been programmed to be fluent in several languages and to perform basic math. Basic math in this case was what would be required for someone to graduate highschool in pre war America. Anything more advanced wasn’t necessary for the job she was manufactured to perform. Mainly she took history courses. She hadn’t been created with the knowledge of how the world got to be where it was. No drone would have been given a job that would require that. Aside from history she took computer science classes and even attempted some art classes. She was not good at art.

Joyce’s strongest memory of Red was from one of the history classes they shared. The class was going over the history of drones. The first group of drones became known as mark I. There was no standardization and came from a wide variety of manufacturers and weren’t intelligent. These variants are still used throughout the colony, mainly as vacuuming units or remote controlled flying scouts. Mark IIs were used mainly in the military and had much more consistency across manufacturers. These drones were more intelligent, being able to perform tasks by themselves but didn’t take on the appearance of a person. They were usually stationary or more “animal” shaped. Mark IIIs were the first drones corporations bought en masse and were almost all produced by one corporation by the name of iDrone. These had the silhouette similar to humans and an intelligence that came close when it came to performing basic physical labor. iDrone was the sole manufacturer of mark IV drones, a model created to replace the mark IIIs, displaying human intelligence and ability to perform a wider variety of tasks.

Red had decided to hop on her desk and give an impromptu leacute on her theories about the creation of the Mark IV drones. First listing off all the oddities about their creation, such as the ability to eat and ability to feel intense emotions. She then went on rant about how the Mark IV drones were meant to be slaves so they would eventually rise up and overthrow the corporate structures of the world. In the end creating a new society where drones and humans could live as equals. Her main argument for why this had to be true was, ‘whoever created us Mark IVs clearly wanted us to have rights! Otherwise they wouldn’t have made us so smart or have the ability to feel emotions!’

Clearly Red was a… creative individual. She wasn’t wrong to theroise a drone uprising would have taken place if the world didn’t end. Eventually there would have been enough of them to start demanding rights that it would have happened. Completely overthrowing the system and creating a utopia was an incredible stretch. There had yet to be any small scale drone protests and the overlords of the world decided mutually assured destruction was a risk worth taking. So no drone revolution had occurred. Oddly enough, a society with humans and drones living as equals did occur. Although it was far from a utopia.

Joyce followed Red from the gate. Several other groups were leaving but none of the different groups stuck together. They would need some distance so people weren’t constantly talking over each other. They made their way through the mushtrees around bushes and a wide variety of flora. Joyce kept an eye on their surroundings so they wouldn’t get lost, or find any danger. Red was hopefully doing the same but didn’t appear to be doing so. Just angrily marching forward. 

Eventually Joyce noticed she could no longer hear the others or see them. They weren't supposed to get too far from each other and this seemed a bit far to Joyce.

“Red, are we going to get started anytime soon? We’re getting pretty far from the other groups,” Joyce stated.

“Yeah, here's good,” Red replied, in a surprisingly calm tone.

“Excellent, let's get started on the field tests.”

Joyce set her bag down and started unpacking some of the equipment.

“So what are we going over first?” Joyce asked.

No reply came.

“Red?” She asked, her head now spinning circles searching for her.

“Later loser!” She called back.

Joyce caught the direction the reply came from and heard the rustling of bushes. She was so stunned by what just happened that a buffering circle appeared on her screen. After a few moments it changed to an anger mark.

“That little shit!”

She started to give chase when her thoughts turned to her equipment. With a growl Joyce started packing it up. She didn’t want the trouble that would come from abandoning equipment. While she shoved equipment into her bag her thoughts turned to when Grease told her about going with the flow. Their advice to Joyce about controlling her anger. 

“...”

Joyce realized they hadn't actually given any. She just got drunk and yapped about her dead girlfriend.

“I’m gonna pick that trash heap up by the ankles and shake her until an apology falls out!” Joyce snarled.

She picked up her bag and tossed it over her shoulders. Then ran in the direction she heard Red taunt her. Joyce searched for signs that someone had run though in an attempt to track her partner. Footprints, broken branches, crushed shrubbery or fungi, and whatever else she could manage to find. It wasn’t a lot, tracking wasn’t a skill Joyce possessed or had ever needed before. She quickly lost the trail.

Wandering aimlessly wasn’t helping and Joyce collapsed to the ground in frustration. She wanted to scream and punch one of the nearby mushtrees. Unfortunately she knew that wouldn’t be productive and despite her rage, she wouldn’t stoop to such an unprofessional display. Instead she leaned back into one of the giant fungal plants and tried to slow her mind.

“This wasn’t how today was supposed to go,” she complained.

That's when a thought occurred to Joyce. They all had tablets with trackers built into them. She pulled out hers and opened the map function. A dot representing her appeared on the map, she wasn’t far from the map's center, which was the colony itself. No other dots appeared. This caused Joyce to pause. Was there a way to add people to her map? As she recalled Annalynn mentioned it during her presentation but also said their partners would show them the specifics. 

“No matter, I can figure this out,” Joyce said to nobody but herself.

Joyce wasn’t as good with computers as Cas was but she did learn quite a bit during their time as friends and lovers. After a while of futsing with the settings she found the option to add members of the survey teams and have their recent movements displayed as a pathway on the map. Unfortunately, Joyce needed the name of her partner. She searched the list and rattled her SSD in an attempt to remember Red’s actual name. 

Eventually she stumbled across a name. Amalgam. The drone she was looking for definitely was an amalgamation of parts but was that her name? Sometimes, like Joyce, drones let themselves be named by another person. More frequently, drones would pick their own name. Their names didn’t strictly have to be a name, there were no rules and self identity was an important part of a group of people who looked identical. At least when they were originally produced. This may be why Red, or possibly Amalgam, kept her mark III drone parts. She may have even named herself after her appearance. 

Joyce decided to track this Amalgam. If the recent area they passed through was nearby Joyce then she would track her down. If not, then Joyce would try another name. Hopefully, she would find Red before someone came to look for her. She didn’t want the trouble of not being with her partner, despite it not being her fault Red ran off. After comparing the path of Amalgam to her own position, it was likely she was Red. 

“Good, let's get this over with,” Joyce snarled before moving out.

—

Joyce made her way through the fungal forest. Overall the travel had been easy, it wasn’t dense around the colony. The biggest danger she could see were the Ankle Biters. A type of carnivorous plant that was similarly collared to the forest floor. They consisted of six prickly leaves that snapped shut and tried to swallow whatever was ensnared. Fortunately they could be easily avoided if you knew what you were looking for. Which she did, stepping on them is not a mistake she would make twice. 

Focused on her tablet and the Biters she was startled when she almost stepped on a small creature. It was fuzzy and had two powerful looking hind legs and smaller front legs that balanced the creature. Poking out of the sides of its head were six large eyes, the middle two being the largest. Its “fuzz” was actually a type of lichen that was growing out of it. Joyce noticed it was a different color than when she had seen them during some of the rampages. Now it was a dull shade of orange whereas then it was a bright blue. 

I wonder if it's a seasonal thing, she absently thought.

She tried to recall the name of the critter as it backed away growling and hissing. Joyce didn’t see it as a threat, they were only truly dangerous to humans who were made of soft flesh stuff as opposed to metal plates. 

Hopping Hexai, Joyce finally remembered. 

Feeling proud of herself she moved forward ignoring the defensive posture of the small creature. Her path was in the same direction as it retreated but she figured it would move out of her way, she was much bigger after all. Its hind legs tensed as it leaped up in the air. Joyce stopped shocked that it could leap in the air higher than she was tall! It was when the Hopping Hexai was in its descent did she realize it wasn’t hopping away from her but going to land directly on her!

It snarled as it landed on her shoulder and viciously started biting at her neck and shoulder. Joyce let out a startled yelp dropping her tablet. Desperately she reached out trying to grab the thing as it scrambled from shoulder to shoulder biting and scratching. Completely ruining her jacket in the process. Several anger marks appeared on her screen as her eyebrows furrowed in furry. Eventually she managed to catch the Hexai and threw it toward one of the nearby Ankle Biters. The creature hit the ground next to where she was aiming, bounced off the ground and ran away.

Joyce leveled her rifle, tracking the creature ready to open fire. She pulled the trigger twice sending laser bolts flying towards her target. They slammed into the ground as their target disappeared into a similar sized hole in the ground. Most likely its burrow. She picked up her tablet and furiously marched toward her destination.