Rush grabbed the head of the now-inert drone and pulled on the faceplate. It did not come loose, though some of the mechanisms underneath strained under the exertion. Rush gave up before he caused any damage.

  “You think you can use this thing to rebuild my armor?”

  “Not under the circumstances,” Elvis admitted. “It’s more solidly built than most of what I’ve disassembled so far. But with the proper tools I’m sure we could make use of the armor, as well as some of the synthetic muscles beneath. Especially with our helmet in its current state.”

  Rush looked at the heavily dented faceplate. It hadn’t been much to look at before, and now the welded plates of scrap metal were dented and cracking at the seams.

  “Your friends among the Junkers might have the tools we need,” Elvis suggested. “They are experts in disassembling Kellarin Technology equipment.”

  “Maybe,” Rush said. “We need to get out of here first.”

  They couldn’t do much while stuck in a hallway in any event. Rush double-checked his concussive cannon, but Elvis had a slightly different idea.

  “Actually, that is something I can handle with a little more...finesse,” Elvis said. “If you’d kindly place your hand against the drone for a moment.”

  Rush did so, and the familiar silver tide washed over the dead drone. Elvis’s nanomachines could not disassemble the large, armored components, but all he needed right now was a microchip. Elvis washed over the drone’s circuity until he found what he needed and drew it back to the Scrapper suit’s processors.

  “There we are,” Elvis said. “Security clearance for the entire facility.”

  The drone being able to enter the hall during lockdown had led Elvis to an obvious assumption. Rush came to the same conclusion, and pressed his hand against the palm scanner again. The lights came back on, and the sealed door let out a quiet hiss as it unlocked.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Now we have access to the immediate area, at least,” Elvis said. There was no telling if there might be higher levels of security deeper inside. “Shall we head back, for now?”

  “Not yet,” Rush said. He picked up the drone and slung the inert body over his shoulder. “If this is their security system, the tools to repair it are probably somewhere around here. We can use them for our purposes.”

  “I suppose that’s true. Further onward, then.”

  Rush pushed the sealed door open, and headed deeper into the facility. The next room was mercifully empty -it might have been a security checkpoint, in the past, but that purpose was lost to time. Rush double-checked the room for any hidden surprises and found nothing. One door branched off to the left, and the other followed the same path as the entry, presumably further into the facility. Rush headed left. Anything that branched off from the main thoroughfare was likely to be a shorter path.

  The side door proved to be a short path indeed, as it came to a halt only one room in, and Rush came to a halt as soon as he stepped through the door. The inert drone hit the ground with a thud as Rush dropped it and faced off with three more of the drones.

  His reflexes were fast, but the drones were as slow as could be -completely immobile, in fact. A layer of Kellcite inches thick grew over their torsos and limbs, freezing them in their resting position. One of the pods was empty, presumably where Rush’s fallen foe had come from, but three others were occupied by the disturbingly humanoid crystal-coated drones. Rush relaxed and stepped back from the frozen machines.

  “Their Kell Cells must have failed some time ago,” Elvis said. “And I must say I’m happy about it. As impressive as our combat prowess is, Mr. Rush, I doubt we could have handled four of these drones at once.”

  “Probably not,” Rush agreed. He showed no interest in the hypothetical bout, and focused on a fifth, much larger pod on the opposite side of the room. The larger pod contained several inert mechanical arms, all tipped with tools of varying types.

  “Your intuition appears to be correct, Mr. Rush,” Elvis said. “This automated chamber is made to repair and modify the drones.”

  “So it could probably modify us,” Rush said. “Can you control it?”

  In response, the chamber clicked to life. Mechanical arms shook of centuries of dust and proudly flexed their various tools.

  “I should be able to complete modifications within the hour,” Elvis said. “You can remove the suit and make yourself comfortable elsewhere, Mr. Rush.”

  “Can you do it while I’m still wearing the suit?”

  “I suppose, yes,” Elvis said. “But you will have to remain relatively still for the entire process.”

  Rush placed the dead drone inside the chamber, then stepped inside himself and froze in place, mimicking the petrified posture of the crystallized drones. Elvis had some concerns, but even he was past the point of trying to make sense of Rush. Instead of asking questions, Elvis got to work.