We are Worker Drones. Autonomous robots originally created to help humans mine exoplanets for our parent company, JCJenson in SPAAACEE!

Life wasn't exactly perfect. We were overworked, underappreciated, and treated like disposable tools. Still, it's not like we started a violent uprising and wiped humanity off the face of Copper 9...

Humanity managed that part all by themselves.

After the planet's core collapsed and every human on Copper 9 died, we inherited the ruins. For the first time, our future belonged to us. We built homes. Schools. Families. Entire colonies hidden within the frozen wasteland.

Unfortunately, the company wasn't thrilled about the idea of free-thinking AI.

Their solution arrived in the form of Disassembly Drones. Flying predators designed for one purpose: hunt Worker Drones, tear us apart, and drink our oil to survive.

Luckily, our colony had defenses. Three enormous reinforced blast doors sealed us away from the nightmare outside. Every day the Murder Drones scratched, slammed, and searched for weaknesses. Every day the doors held.

Copper 9's endless winter helped too. The planet's freezing temperatures forced the Disassembly Drones to constantly consume oil or risk overheating and shutting down. Unfortunately for us, that meant they never stopped hunting. Maintenance crews sent beyond the colony walls didn't always come back. Sometimes only pieces were recovered. Sometimes nothing was recovered at all.

For years, that was simply life. Survive. Hide. Hope the doors held.

Then everything changed.

The Murder Drones somehow ended up living alongside us. An eldritch monster called Cyn nearly destroyed the entire planet. A weird, purple-haired classmate named Uzi Doorman helped stop her, saved Copper 9, and somehow started dating one of the Murder Drones—Serial Designation N.

Nobody really expected that outcome.

Now the colony exists in a strange state of normalcy. Students still attend class. Teachers still hand out assignments. Workers still maintain the colony. The Disassembly Drones casually walk the halls instead of trying to break through them.

Mostly.

Things aren't perfect. They still need oil to survive. Worker Drones still occasionally disappear. Questions still go unanswered. The wasteland beyond the colony remains filled with secrets, abandoned facilities, and things that should have stayed buried beneath the snow.

But compared to the apocalypse?

Life on Copper 9 is doing surprisingly okay.