This was an event that occurred back in Aquilo Perfugium, while NSLICE-00P was terminating the Darkest Dungeon.

A cyber-rat was currently huddled up in the corner of an alleyway. He was squeaking to himself and picking at the metal armor across his body. Every now and again he’d peek out at the people walking through the streets, just to store some faces in his logs for later review, before returning to…whatever it was he was doing.

Meanwhile, entirely unbeknownst to the rat, a cyber-spider rested on the wall of the alleyway, waiting in the web she had spun. Like the others, she had metal coating her legs, body, and the left half of her head, including four of her eyes. Her largest robotic eye rotated slightly to adjust its zoom, while the others scanned the area independently.

S was on ‘snack’ duty again.

But she didn’t mind.

The others, 01S and 03S, hated snack duty. The snack duty spider was glued to the subject, and so unable to move as they pleased. Yet, they also couldn’t be seen, which restricted the actions they could take as well. So they couldn’t proactively tackle the mission the Boss assigned to them, and they couldn’t go off hunting on their own, either. And worst…they were technically watching over one of their own, on the off-chance he actually found a way to inconvenience the Boss. So they weren’t even accomplishing anything for their efforts.

But 02S didn’t see it that way.

The snack might not be the strongest…or the most loyal…or the brightest…or the bravest…or the most helpful…but he was still claimed by the Boss. 02S had watched the Boss as she raced back to save 01R, long before she had granted him a name. She watched as the Boss worked to save some small Dobhar pup who couldn’t even fight yet. She herself had been granted a name, despite never achieving anything significant for the dungeon. She knew that the Boss valued all her subordinates, no matter how useful or useless they might seem. The Boss would not permit a single one of them to escape her grasp, not even through death.

So watching over the snack was an important duty. She felt the Boss would be displeased if he perished alone.

Besides, the alternative was to bring kills to Lilussees. Their big sister was intelligent and helped the Boss a great deal…but 02S didn’t really understand her. After all, 02S liked to make her own kills from start to finish. There was nothing quite as satisfying as wrapping up a target in her own webs and then sinking her fangs into their helpless bodies, watching the hope fade from their eyes as she approached. She didn’t want to let someone else handle any part of that process for her, not if she had a choice.

And…

“No no, you stupid-dumb armor-thing! I order-command you to give me access to the strange man-thing’s secrets, yes yes! The Great-High King of all the land has no time-patience for your ‘critical software error’ nonsense!”

S giggled to herself.

The snack was hilarious.

It was adorable that he somehow believed that even a single one of them hadn’t already identified his intentions. Even 00B somehow understood Mr. Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third was not to be trusted. The Boss clearly pretended as if she didn’t realize his traitorous intentions, so the rest of them played along as well. None of them particularly understood why, but the Boss knew best.

S enjoyed watching him skulk in the shadows. How he plotted and planned, no doubt coming up with some hair-brained scheme doomed to failure. How he marched forward, completely confident in his half-hearted plans. And then his face of abject despair as he realized the result that was obvious to 02S from the start.If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Simply sublime.

Just then one of her smaller robotic eyes turned red and 02S turned her gaze to the sky.

A bird of prey was circling overhead. 02S focused in on it, activating her sensors.

Celeri Falco (Level 12)