INT. SUBSTRUCTURE – POST-BATTLE SILENCE – NIGHT
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[The echo of the battle still lingers in the rust-thick air. SD-A crouches beside one of the downed corrupted bots, digging into its core casing, trying to trace where the organic-metal tendrils begin and where the bot ends.]
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SD-A
(mutters)
“No heat signature, no neural relay… just impulse. This thing didn’t think. It just moved.”
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[SD-K stands nearby, arms crossed, watching—not the dead bots, but A. His optics flicker just a bit too long on A’s hand as it hesitates over a still-twitching wire.]
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SD-K
“Are we done playing surgeon? That thing tried to eat your face, if you hadn’t noticed.”
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SD-A
(quietly)
“I noticed. But it wasn’t in control. Whatever was driving it… hijacked it. This—” (he holds up a blackened nerve-thread, organic metal still pulsing faintly) “—this is the real killer.”
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SD-K
(dry)
“Oh good. That makes me feel way better about what I just exploded.”
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[A beat. K walks past A, brushing his shoulder slightly—harder than necessary.]
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SD-K
“…You always hesitate.”
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SD-A
(looking up sharply)
“What?”
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SD-K
(turns, backpedals the remark)
“Nothing. You done with your science project?”
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[A stands. He doesn’t answer. Doesn’t have to. K already knows.]
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[They move through the next tunnel—closer now, not because they trust each other, but because something worse is out there. The walls here are darker, dustier. A few old cables dangle like vines. Along the floor, A spots a disabled Labor bot slumped against the corner, its body cracked open, leaking oil.]
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[He stops.]
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SD-K
(without turning around)
“We don’t have time to play hero, A.”
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[A walks over anyway. The bot is clearly dead. But beside it… a data drive. Slipped from its fingers like a message that never got sent.]
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SD-A
(kneels)
“It tried to crawl away from the others. Whatever those things are… they hunt, but not randomly. They’re selective.”
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[K watches him. Doesn’t move. He doesn’t say it, but his optics dim slightly. The unspoken judgment hangs in the air: Why do you care?]
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[A pockets the drive.]
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SD-K
“You gonna cry next time we need to burn one of these things down?”
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SD-A
(genuine, not defensive)
“No. I’ll cry when you stop noticing what makes us different from them.”
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[That hits just wrong enough for K to bite down the instinct to argue. He turns again, walks on ahead.]
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[A lingers. Looks at the dead bot. Whispers—maybe just to himself.]
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SD-A
“I’m not hesitating. I’m just… choosing.”
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[He catches up with K. No more is said about it. But the silence between them feels heavier now.]
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