Joyce followed her tablet’s tracking function in order to find Amalgam. Hopefully the drone who ditched her, so she could give her a piece of her mind. And so she could work with the equipment she was supposed to be getting familiar with. Anger clung to Joyce like wet clothes, how dare that tiny trash heap jeopardize both of their careers and safety! 

Throughout this excursion Joyce's blazer  had been ruined during an encounter with a Hopping Hexai. Admittedly it was a poor choice of clothing to wear for exploration but that didn't temper her rage. Eventually she made her way to the base of what looked like a giant palm tree with purple leaves instead of green. Knowing Amalgam was close, Joyce put away her tablet and focused on finding the pile of scrap metal.

Much to her surprise Amalgam was standing in the open, staring directly at her. To her even greater surprise a Unisaur loomed over the smaller drone. In a snap decision Joyce readied her rifle to take a shot at the creature. She was still livid but protecting the source of her anger was her primary objective so she shoved it aside for the time being. 

The smaller drone's eyes hollowed out in assumably fear as she realised the trouble she was in and moved to run away. A poor decision, her sudden movement blocked Joyce’s shot. Unfortunately it also gave the Unisaur time to rear up on its hind legs and strike out with its front legs. The crack of hoof hitting metal erupted from the collision as Amalgam was flung forward. In an instant she was crashing into the dirt face first, a few feet in front of her attacker. 

Joyce took the moment to realign her shot before the Unisaur could charge her or finish off Amalgam as one might in a rampage. Instead the creature turned and fled. Joyce hesitated only for a moment. Her priority was protecting Amalgam. If the creature was no longer a threat then she needed to see to the currently unmoving drone. 

Dirt covered Amalgam's screen so Joyce carefully dusted it off to reveal a buffering wheel.

“Unconscious is better than dead,” Joyce muttered to herself.

The LED screen was cracked along the right side but no fluids leaked out. Still Joyce removed some bandages from her medical supplies and wrapped them around Amalgam's face. Best to make sure none of the screen falls off. That could lead to internal damage to the visual sensors if none had been done already.

Next Joyce moved to inspect the metal plate where Amalgam had been struck. She unzipped the jumpsuit and spun the drone around, then continued to peel the dirty covered clothes from her torso. 

There were several welds along her back and sides. Poorly done, they left gaps exposing the interior of herself to the elements. It almost looked as if someone tried to open up her back without using the proper access hatches. 

Surely nobody would be that stupid, Joyce though. That completely ignores maintenance protocols.

Joyce looked again at Amalgam's mix and matched limbs and doubted her previous assessment.

Shaking her head she examined the dents along the injured drones back. At the center of the hoof strike the plating had cracked, creating another entry point for dirt to the inter-workings of the drone. Joyce looked through her medical supplies for her liquid weld. Used a temporary repair for punctured plating. She found it next to her silicon repair patches. 

Carefully Joyce spread the liquid onto the damaged areas of Amalgam's back. And left it to quickly harden. After a brief moment of hesitation, she applied some to the shoddy welding done by whoever previously maintained her. A proper scar after all, resealed the plating. Otherwise there was no point to it.

Joyce leaned Amalgam against the giant tree, careful not to let the liquid weld connect to the wood. Even though it would have been funny to watch her get stuck there. Joyce also thought about letting the weld dry to her jumpsuit. She would have deserved it for ditching her but doing so would be unprofessional. So instead Joyce started to scan the horizon searching for any potential threats. She’d zip up the jumpsuit once the weld was dry.

Down the hill was a pack of Unisarus. Where the aggressive one fled too. Fortunately, rejoining the pack wasn’t anything of note to the others. Instead they went about whatever it was animals did in a relatively relaxed manner. Some noticed Joyce on top of the hill but went back to ignoring her when she remained on the hill top. Eventually the pack left, no further incidents occurring. 

Joyce glared at them as they left. It was odd nothing else had happened and that genuinely suppressed her. She didn’t let it show of course, instead choosing a stoic expression. One a Security Officer should wear. During the rampage the wildlife never retreated from a fight, especially when there was easy prey. So this behavior was indeed odd. 

Or perhaps it’s the behavior during a rampage that’s odd, she thought.

Stirring from behind her interrupted her musing. She turned to see Amalgam sitting up. Instead of immediately kicking her in the mid section like she wanted to, Joyce painted on her friendliest expression. It looked more like the smile an annoyed mother would give a difficult child than friendly. She tried to remember how Cas would have treated her or a patient being reactivated after a modification or repair session. 

“Glad to see you’re awake, you took a bit of a hit there,” Joyce said in the friendliest tone she could manage. Which sounded more like a furious parent trying not to yell at their child in public in order to avoid a scene. “I bandaged up your head and put liquid weld on your punctured back. Once we confirm it's hardened we should take you to a…”

Joyce trailed off as Amalgam hastily put her clothing back on. Panic was plainly written across her screen, with her hollowed eyes scanning her surroundings. Well, if she didn’t want to listen it was fine by her. She imagined Amalgam struggling to take off the jumpsuit because it had fused to the liquid wield and smirked.

Amalgam came to her senses and spun towards Joyce.

“You!” She shouted, “I had everything under control until you showed up!”

Joyce’s customer service face immediately cracked.

“Under control? You think you had that under control, “She retorted. “If I hadn’t showed up that thing could have killed you! I mean if it used its rear legs to kick you, you’d be dead!”

“It’s not like anyone would care,” Amalgam scoffed. “Besides I was feeding it, not being attacked!”

“Those monsters only approach someone to eat them!”

“Those animals only attack people during a rampage or when threatened. But you wouldn’t know that, you’ve never left the wall before!”

“I’ve fought enough of them to know they're dangerous and should be avoided!”

“But you never studied them! You put me in danger! Denying that just shows you have a faulty memory, or processor!”

Joyce glared at the defiant drone. Then reviewed the memory of the event. She saw both the unisaurus and Amalgam still, both tense but calm as if waiting for trouble. The monster was eating out of a makeshift bowl held by Amalgam. Both heads spun towards her when they heard her approach. As Joyce prepared to fire, Alamgalm went to block the shot! Not flailing about in a panic. 

Joyce just now realized how close the two had gotten. She was looming over the smaller drone as she looked up in defiance at her. Their screens were close, both staring daggers at one another. Joyce disengaged. Creating a distance between them. Feeling stubborn she refused to acknowledge her misinterpretation of the situation. She refused to acknowledge another mistake. 

“Well, we wouldn’t be in this situation if you didn’t ditch me,” Joyce scoffed. “All to feed monsters instead of doing your job!”

“You… may have a point,” Amalgam conceded, the fire in her eyes dying.

“Then perhaps you should show me how to use these gizmos like you're supposed to.”

“Fine.”

—-

Time passed as they slowly went through the various scanning equipment. Much to Joyce’s frustration, Amalgam took a very hands off approach to training. Instead choosing to lounge while drinking out of another husk she chopped open.

“So once you set up the drill thingy,” Amalgam explained. “You’re going to want to decide how deep you want to drill.”

“It’s called a Soil Analyzer,” Joyce replied flatly.

The Soil Analyzer was a relatively small cylinder that had three legs unfold out of it. At its top was a screen where you could set the parameters for the dig. As well as view the results. Joyce experimented with the settings, and activated the device. The drill spun outward from the bottom of the device, penetrating and gathering the soil. 

“Did you mean what you said earlier?” Joyce asked.

“Yes, I call the ‘Soil Analyzer’ the drill thingy,” Amalgam said.

“Not that,” Joyce snapped, then she hesitated before continuing. “About nobody caring. If you… didn’t come back.”

“Look, I’m a loner. Always have been.” Amalgam glanced away not meeting her eyes, “I know I’m just a passing thought in someone's head at best. I just want to enjoy the time I have, we all die eventually.”

A morose expression fell upon Joyce’s face. She used to think the same thing when she first joined The Colony. That she was just an expendable guard. She made friends and that changed. Then she lost people she cared about. She lost Cassandra.

No, Joyce forced herself to think. She’ll be back soon enough.

“You’d probably be surprised,” Joyce eventually said.

“Please don’t try and say you care,” Amalgam groaned, “we just met.”

Joyce looked away, and felt ashamed. Amalgam was right, she didn’t care about the individual. Joyce cared about doing her job. About not failing at her job. Not about the specific person she was assigned to guard.

“You take things way too seriously,” Amalgam said, suddenly trying to change topics. “Here, have some juice.”

“I only eat when I need the extra battery life and can’t find a charge pad,” Joyce replied. “Besides, I’m not into eating.”

“That sounds like the words of someone who turned off their taste sensors,” Amalgam mocked.

Truth be told, Joyce had turned off her taste sensors. It was after her first bite of food back before she had a name. The cooperation needed to keep the drones running during a power outage. They provided the nastiest slop imaginable and it had a taste to match. Joyce just assumed all food was like that. Not wanting to tell this to the walking dumpster, she enabled her ability to taste and snatched the husk.

Joyce hesitantly sipped on the liquid. Much to her surprise it wasn’t awful. It was actually pretty good. Easily the best thing she’d eaten. Not that that was much of a competition. She’d have to keep her taste sensors enabled, see if there was anything else worth eating. Not that she’d make a habit of it. Her thoughts were interrupted by a chuckle from Amalgam.

“Whats so funny," Joyce demanded.

“The look on your face tells me you were surprised by the taste,” Amalgam giggled. “Did you really have your taste sensors off? Your eyes hollowed when you drank it.”

“How I keep my settings is none of your business, “Joyce huffed.

“Don’t worry, I can read between the lines.”

“Sure you can,” Joyce replied, letting the subject drop. She looked down at the husk and back to the tree. It truly was ginormous. She is supposed to learn about this stuff now. So asking questions was to be expected. Not that she would necessarily get an answer.

“Why does this tree grow so large when other similar types don’t?”

“Look at the do hickey you set up, that should answer your question.” Amalgam answered.

“Soil analyzer,” Joyce said as she made her way to the device.

She tapped at the screen a few times in an attempt to navigate to the results. It took a bit longer than she would have liked, but asking for help didn’t actually seem like it would result in help. So she struggled until they were properly displayed. 

“Huh, there's incredibly high mycelium levels. Shouldn’t that create a competition for resources? Or do the trees somehow consume the mycelium?” Joyce mused aloud, not actually expecting an answer.

“They actually function as expanded roots,” Amalgam said. “We don’t know how deep they go but they do spread across a wide area. That's why there are no other mushtrees in the immediate surroundings."

“Wait, you actually know things?” Joyce said, surprise leaking from her voice. She’d been assuming the lack of guidance and excess lounging meant Amalgam didn’t actually know anything.

“Wow, rude.”

Joyce sighed and turned to face Amalgam. Working with her might be a pain but she didn’t want another failure to go on her record. Additionally Amalgam probably wouldn’t want to face the consequences of running off so she made a proposal.

“Look, we’re supposed to work together,” Joyce started.

“Yeah, I’d rather not,” She said.

“Trust me the feelings mutual. Fortunately for you, I don’t want to deal with the consequences of your actions. So if you agree to stick with me, I’ll leave this incident out of my report.”

“How do you plan on explaining away my injuries, I tripped and fell?” Amalgam grumbled.

“I can fight monsters. I can’t fight your clumsiness," Joyce said matter of factly. 

“They're animals, not monsters,” Amalgam snapped. She paused for a moment, picking at the bandages over her visor. “That’ll work. At least until you can transfer away.”

“Fine.”

“Good.”