Leo and Mikey lurched forward as the momentum of their ship abruptly and drastically decreased. Were the pair not strapped securely into their seats they would have gone tumbling forward into the control consoles of their small craft. The mercenaries panted and clutched their stomachs in unison, trying to will away the disorientation that always accompanied the aftermath of a jump. The ship seemed to drunkenly pitch and sway around them, but both the dragon and his bunny companion knew that it was only an illusion as their senses snapped back into being from nothingness. The hare erratically patted his torso as if trying to reassure himself that every last molecule of his body had made it back into its proper place. 

The incessant beeping of the starship’s various warning systems finally dulled and died, leaving them sitting in the unexpectedly oppressive silence of their cockpit. They looked to one another and each saw their mate’s face illuminated by the multihued flicker of the vessel’s lights. The hints of hopeful smiles played at the edges of their muzzles. If they hadn’t been both dizzy and buckled in they would have jumped up to embrace and kiss each other in relief.

After taking a few well-needed seconds to recover, the green dragon reached forward and tapped a rubber-clad claw on the keypad before him. The power that had been amplified by Echo and diverted toward the craft’s defensive systems and boosters started to even back out, causing the features which had faltered during their mad rush to the warp gate started to kick back in. A holographic display of the space outside their craft popped back, in a half-circle around them. Once the drake had steeled himself, he nodded to his mate and rotated their view fully around to where they had come from to ensure that no weapons or hostiles had managed to slip through behind them undetected.

As they slowly spun, they could see the twinkle of unknown stars in the distance and the hazy glow of planets they were completely unfamiliar with. Far off, there was the brilliant shine of the sun of the system that they found themselves in. It blazed with a shimmering azure light that would have blinded them if gazed upon with the naked eye. They were at the periphery of a remote solar system, the pulse of its nuclear heart felt even at their considerable distance from the center. Thankfully, they were far out enough that they were not in any danger. Their starship could withstand a lot of environmental hazards, but the heat and radiation that such a giant gave off would test even their formidable tech.

It suddenly struck Leo that his sentient suit had been abnormally quiet in the minutes since reality had stitched itself back together around them.

“...Echo?” He asked nervously. He had a peculiar uncertainty in his gut, and quickly identified it as a concern for the artificial intelligence’s well-being. It was an awkward feeling: concern for an object, even if it was a sentient one.

“My systems are rebooting after an unexpected power surge. Only vital functions are currently available. Please wait 60 to 90 seconds while I get back online.”

The modulated voice didn’t have the inflective edge that Leo had grown used to. It felt more mechanical. Pre-programmed. Artificial. Which might be a curious thing to think of when considering what is wrong with an AI, but that is where the drake’s mind immediately went. He reflexively hoped that Echo would be back to normal soon, before actively dismissing the thought. Their goal was to get the admin key so that they could reprogram and remove the suit. Wanting it to be “better” was counterproductive, to say the least. Still, the scaled anthro couldn’t help but feel guilty and callous at trying to disregard it.

“Map immediate surroundings,” Mikey ordered the on-board computer from behind him. During one of the many days that he had spent together on the ship he had been programmed in as a crew member with authority. Their craft recognized his voice and immediately sent out various pulses of light, sound, and radiation in all directions to get an accurate analysis of the space around them to about five billion kilometers out. It would be enough to get their bearings in the solar system they found themselves in, if nothing else, and could worry about charting further into the galaxy if the planet they needed wasn’t within their initial scan.

When a hologram of the system was projected into view in front of them a few seconds later, the rabbit unbuckled himself. Their artificial gravity had gone out with most of their nonessential functions. He pulled his weightless body over to a workstation and re-engaged it to keep his stomach contents where they were. The scintillating image traveled with him, hovering over his shoulder as he moved. Once he thumped back into a seat and could tell up from down again, he began cross-checking the coordinates of Echo’s stated point of origin with the planets and other bits of space debris orbiting the blue giant. They were surprisingly precise, essentially pinpointing a location rather than the vague, encrypted signals he was used to decoding. He retrieved some of his favored gadgets, quickly calibrated them, and worked with an intense focus that Leo admired.

The dragon almost hated to interrupt him.

“The federation armada we jumped past probably doesn’t have authorization to follow us through the gate, especially because this side seems completely unattended,” he said, looking at the camera view of the seemingly defunct warpgate. It always struck him as a bit eerie how, other than a few dings from bits of errant debris, satellites and space stations never seemed broken down or decayed once they were abandoned. He always felt that they should look like skeletal husks with their metal supports twisted and ripped out from one side, but they always just floated lifelessly forever in the void of space, frozen in nearly pristine condition. How long ago had this array been constructed? Centuries? Millennia? 

In any case, without access to the mysterious technology inside of Echo, the military force would have to figure out how to get the jump operational for a return trip if they risked following the adventurers through, unless they wanted to live the rest of their lives in uncharted alien space.

“So we are probably safe. For a while anyway,” Leo concluded as he approached his partner. His legs still wobbled beneath him from their recent experience. He had a hard enough time waddling around with the extra bulk of his squishy suit as it was. Adding the post-jump nausea into the mix was asking for drunken stumbling.  “And Echo mentioned something about disabling the gate for a length of time after we warped too.”

The bunny skewed his face as he surveyed his readings.

“What’s wrong?” His partner inquired, peeking over his shoulder at the data.

Mikey pointed at a planet in the hologram a few orbital rings closer to the sun than the one that they were nearest to.

“This is where we need to explore to find the lab that Echo came from. And these-” he then pointed at small pinpricks of light streaking out from it and traced their steady trajectory toward them with his fingertip. “-are worrying. They seemed to have taken off moments after we came through.”

The drake squinted and reached into the displayed light with both gloved talons. He motioned with his claws and spread his arms wide to enlarge the image until they were situated squarely within it. The floating dots had lines of data next to them indicating they were small, manufactured objects. They were far enough off that it would be a while before they reached them at their current pace, but the adventurers were set to head toward them and that would close the distance quickly once they started moving at full speed.

“What do you think they are? Homing beacons?” The dragon asked.

“They're too small to be anything but single-anthro fighters or drones,” Mikey confirmed as he quickly scrolled through information on his screen. “Whatever they are, though, they knew we were here the moment we materialized. Hopefully they aren’t a threat. This isn’t a mapped or federated system. Most universal language translation software won’t work for us. We’ll be relying completely on Echo’s capabilities.”

At about that moment the sentient suit started to take on air and seemed to revitalize. It had partially deflated when the AI needed to reboot, but was bringing itself back to full capacity with remarkable resilience. After the surge it had emitted to boost the power of the ship it seemed to finally be functional again. The captain let loose a sigh of relief. Echo properly stirring eased a tightness in his chest that he didn’t realize he had been feeling until it was suddenly absent.

“I think we’ll be okay as long as we stay sharp to any danger,” Leo assured his fellow mercenary. He had only gained confidence in the suit’s miraculous abilities, even if he was planning on removing it entirely once he finally got the chance. As nice as Echo’s plush interior felt against his body, he did miss the feeling of a proper shower or the caress of air against his naked scales on occasion. “How long until contact?”

“Hours, at the very least. We’ll have to run a full diagnostic of the ship to make sure there was no lasting damage before we can get moving properly. Then there’s the time to close.” Mikey smiled slightly and narrowed his eyes as he glanced toward his companion. Leo saw the lapine’s tongue flicker across his muzzle mischievously. “I’ve already started the automated process, so we have time to entertain ourselves.”

The dragon’s heart fluttered. Now that he was on the upswing from jumping sickness, relieving the tension of the moment in the wanton embrace of his lover sounded like exactly what he needed.

“I do think we deserve it,” he responded, grinning.

They needed to support one another as they shambled toward the bunks on shaky legs. Echo’s added bulk made them clumsy and they tripped in the corridor. The bunny tumbled atop his mate. He found himself straddling the other spacer’s torso. The inflated suit cushioned both of their falls. They breathed heavily, inhaling one another’s scent. The pheromones they had released during their recent adventure, of fear and exhilaration, mingled into a heady mixture. Their muzzles were close. Their lips touched.

They passionately kissed on the floor of their craft, protected from the metal grate beneath them by Echo’s comforting softness. Their tongues danced wildly, each eagerly fighting for dominance. The sensation of his mate atop him and the taste of the hare on his tongue had the expected effect on the scaled anthro. He felt himself harden almost immediately and wondered if he was rigid enough for Mikey to feel the press of his shaft through the inflated layers of rubber separating them.

When Echo’s power faltered, the mechanisms that had held every cable and tube in place failed as well. His cock was no longer trapped in the silken grip of a ribbed sleeve. He felt his sensitive length, already slick with runnels of pre, slide across the interior of the suit with each and every slight motion that they made. Leo shuddered and groaned, hoping the wonderful feeling wouldn’t make him climax too early. The reactivated AI sensed his arousal. He heard the telltale whirring and clicking of various devices hidden within the suit start to reconnect and slide back into place. It would only be a matter of time before it found his hardness and slipped it back to where it should be.

The dragon wondered, in the short window, if he would have been able to remove the suit during the reset had he not been so distracted and worried. While there was no apparent seam to open it at, the synthetic material had proven to be stretchy and malleable. He might have managed to climb out of the neck, although it likely would have ended up being a pointless victory. They would need Echo to activate the warp on their return trip. Although the environmental suit had some ability to function somewhat independently, he doubted it would be as inclined to help him if he were not either wearing it or having complete control of it. The strange intelligence saw its wearer as one to be cared for and coddled, rather merely a host. Not only that, but Leo’s initial capture by the AI proved that if he did take it off during its lapse in power, it was more than capable of dragging him back in. Besides, if they recovered the administration key as they planned, it would be unnecessary soon anyway; the security Echo offered him during the mission probably outweighed his freedom being obtainable slightly earlier than anticipated.

“Physical arousal detected,” the suit announced. The pair had grown so used to its voice in such situations that they normally would hardly register it, but the fact that it regained its proper inflection elated the dragon.

The adventurer explored the bunny’s body with his gloved talons. Mikey’s form was imminently accessible. They hadn’t had a chance or reason to leave their vessel since they had plotted their course, and most days he lounged around in only the tank top and diaper he wore to bed, changing into a pair of underwear on his lower half only once he had grown too soggy to continue to wear them. As such, he only had on an undershirt and a pair of form-fitting trunks. The thick outline of his erection was visible through his underwear. A damp splotch bloomed near his tip from his leaking pre. Heat radiated from the rabbit’s maleness. When the drake brushed his palm against it he swore that he felt it thrum through the thick material of his glove.

Mikey gasped and squirmed when Leo closed his fingers around it and gave it a few teasing strokes through his underwear. Around the same time Echo angled a familiar rubbery tube over his own length. The warm moisture of the tight, lubricated sleeve forced itself slowly over the dragon’s sensitive crown, causing him to spurt copious amounts of pre. The pressure in the air pockets of the suit started to increase, making the suit swell to the point where the drake had trouble moving on his own. It was a feeling which he was all too familiar with. He knew that soon the AI would treat his body like a puppet. It was oddly a sensation he found himself longing for. 

Echo ejected familiar, robotic tentacles from the rear of the suit. They writhed about one another as they slithered toward the bunny. He would have thrashed with wanton desire were it not for the cables coiling ever tighter around his wrists and ankles to hold him in place. On a raw, visceral level he loved the sense of power and authority that Echo helped the dragon exert over him.

The thrill of surging past the armada and drifting in dangerous space combined with the deep bond the lovers felt for one another coalesced into a singularity of passion and desire. Echo sensed it, and made sure to keep its organic host on the edge of orgasm throughout their mating while it stimulated the rabbit in a multitude of ways, maximizing both of their pleasure. Its directive was to see to its wearer’s every need, and in that moment, Leo needed to experience limitless bliss with his boyfriend. The environmental suit did much of the work for them, so that they could experience the sensations without awkwardness or exertion. 

They panted together, fulfilling in their mutual need. Time lost all meaning as they rutted, in their own peculiar way, adrift in the haze of lust. At some point Echo had them change positions, with Mikey on his paws and knees in the vessel’s small corridor. The inflated suit pressed against him from above and behind. When they were both at their limit and whimpering for a release, the AI finally gave in. So sensitive were its readings and calculations that the pair climaxed at the exact same moment.

The lagomorph’s penis twitched erratically as he shot sticky ropes of rabbit seed. The first spurt had enough force that it splashed across the underside of his chin. Several more gushes followed, each with slightly less volume and power than the last. They splattered across his belly and floor beneath him. The scent of his orgasm hung heavy in the air, and he slumped forward, spent, into the mess with his mate atop him. The drake’s orgasm was equally potent. He felt his crown flare and spasm as he unleashed a heavy load of reptilian spunk. His suit swiftly siphoned it away, depositing it all into his muzzle from a small port near the wrist of his glove which had already been dutifully shoved into his maw. It was the most of his own cum he had ever had to swallow. Even as the first salty taste of his offering started to pump into his mouth he still felt himself pulse and shoot more.

Finally, Echo released its grip on each of them, retracting its appendages and let them curl up with one another on the floor until they were able to regain their stamina and get back to work, their arousal temporarily sated. They chose to take a short break after that, before planning the last leg of their journey to Echo’s homeworld.

It was only a couple of hours laters when they were en route, full speed, toward the foreign planet when Mikey’s eyes popped open wide. He gawked at his monitor for a moment before he started furiously typing on multiple keypads. He enlarged readings on his displays for Leo to examine. The dragon immediately sensed his apprehension and drew near.

“What’s wrong?” he queried. The question hadn’t even been fully asked before the AI decided to answer for him.

“Multiple hostiles rapidly approaching.”

The blips on the screen that had seemed so far off not long ago were now travelling faster than any object had any right to go and heading directly for their coordinates. The pair scrambled for their seats. Each worked feverishly on a holographic display projected in front of them. When they first decided to work together they shared their strengths and weaknesses with one another. Neither slouched in any particular area, but Leo was the superior pilot while Mikey’s precision and attention to detail typically gave him the edge when it came to programming weapons and shields in ship-to-ship combat.

The bunny worked quickly to scan the approaching dots to find out more information about them. Obviously Echo knew more about them than the ship’s scanners were able to pull up at such a long distance, but as the gap between them closed he was able to render a hologram representation of what they were dealing with. Detail came in waves. The preliminary visual was a pixelated shape, but as walls of light shifted back and forth across the image, finer and finer aspects could be made out, as if etched out of nothingness. Unless the pilots were an incredibly diminutive species it appeared that they were dealing with drones.

The core of the machines were sleek, bullet-shaped, white metal shells, engraved with a complex bronze pattern resembling circuitry. Countless cable-like tentacles slithered from the back of each. The tendrils were crafted of overlapping bands of chrome. The alien devices propelled themselves through space, their mechanical appendages undulating behind them as if they were swimming. Their graceful movement was combined with an unnatural speed. The starship’s sensors struggled to keep up with their position. It was almost as if they were tearing space itself apart and shooting through the rifts to jump forward in miniature versions of the warp that the duo of mercenaries had experienced earlier. Mikey struggled to determine just how they thrust themselves forward- there were no standard signs of fuel usage, radiation, electromagnetism, or any other method of spaceflight he was familiar with.

Leo stared at the holographic displayed. The familiar mixture of metal and synthetics, the pristine white with bronze inlay...they closely matched the Echo’s aesthetic. They seemed newer, sleeker, than the environmental suit that he wore. Maybe the AI he was intimately familiar with was far older and predated them? In any case, he was confident that they hailed from the same source.

“What do you think they want?” The bunny asked.

“Readings indicate that retrieval drones are inbound. They have registered my return to their monitored space and seek to recover me,” Echo explained.

“Why would they want that?” Leo wondered aloud. “I understand why the people of our system want you so much, but what makes you so important here?” This time the artificial intelligence that inhabited his suit didn’t respond.

“If they are from the same place as Echo, does that mean they are intelligent too? Can we reason with them? If we shoot them will we...will we kill them?” Mikey fretted. He had seen just what Echo was capable of, and if these half-dozen or so drones were even half as powerful as the suit they were in grave danger. The idea that a computer program could “die” hung in the air, leaving a somber feel to their every action.

“Drones are controlled by a central intelligence based far below the sphere’s surface. There is a hive there that replicates devices that are needed and sends them out with specific programming. Destroying them will cause no damage to the central intelligence. They move using an inertialess drive. Your vessel cannot outpace them or run them out of fuel. Conflict is unavoidable.”

The pair of adventurers grimaced simultaneously and prepared themselves for battle. Advances like an inertialess drive were purely theoretical in all of their understanding, even considering the high-end equipment they both collected and tinkered with. After a brief discussion of tactics they decided that it would be best to punch forward at full throttle and fight defensively until they got to the planet’s surface, much like how they had rocketed past the military blockade. Once there, they could use Echo’s capabilities out in the open to protect themselves rather than relying on it augmenting the comparatively archaic tech they had aboard their ship. Between the environmental suit and the collection of gizmos that Leo had aboard his craft, even if the planet ended up being a smoldering, radioactive husk they should be able to survive safely on its surface for quite some time.

“Wait, Echo-” Mikey suddenly exclaimed. “Earlier you said ‘sphere,’ not ‘planet.’ What do you mean by sphere?”

“The point of origin for both the drones and myself is a crafted megastructure the size of a small planet. Similar devices have been built to encompass and harness the power of stars, but ours is constructed around a cluster of radioactive particles. By harnessing and magnifying the energy within, the founders have been able to complete a structure with potentially infinite and malleable interior space, surpassing the need for larger creations.”

The suit’s explanation was as interesting as it was incomplete, but neither the dragon nor his mate could question the AI more thoroughly on the apparatus or the “founders” it spoke of since the dots on their radar continued to dance toward them. Their systems displayed a countdown until they reached an effective combat range. Leo’s fidgeted nervously as they closed. He was normally quite confident when it came to conflict, but everything seemed so beyond him now. He had to rely on Echo’s power and the lapine’s ingenuity to see him through.

“Echo, what is the best way to combat these retrieval drones?” the dragon asked.

“The hive will not risk my destruction, so lethal measures are unlikely to be taken. However, the drones will attempt to do severe damage to your craft in order to render it inoperable before using a gravity tether to tow it back to the sphere.”

“So the closer we can get to the sphere before we start this fight, the less damage we are likely to sustain.” The bunny stated plainly. The artificial intelligence seemed to take it as a legitimate question.

“Affirmative. Defensive and evasive action is still advised to minimize incoming damage and maximize the ability to take off again once landed.”

The drones were upon them and the time for discussion had ended. The drake activated every navigation system he could, tracking the speed and trajectory of their assailants to find the best routes to swerve around and past them. Meanwhile, his rabbit mate began to maximize the capacity of their shielding. It was more geared toward shrugging off laser weapons with only enough physical bulk to ignore small, conventional explosive arms and bits of space debris. Unfortunately, with the pace that the drones approached it seemed like they intended to make physical contact. Mikey targeted the nearest when it came within range and fired a volley of plasma at the strange tech, more to test their capabilities than anything else.

The ionized blasts flashed toward the nearest drone. The bursts erupted into clouds of sparking fuschia haze which enveloped their target. A heartbeat later they could both see the scintillating ripple in space of a force field absorbing the full power of the strike with the drone inside the bubble being completely untouched. It glided smoothly out of the mist. The shimmering hemisphere dissipated into vanishing hexagons as quickly as it had formed, and the drone continued forth. It unexpectedly flipped so that its underside with its menacing array of wires and tentacles faced their starship. No longer did it weave seamlessly through space. Its robotic limbs curved outward like a series of menacing mandibles threatening to wrap about their entire vessel.

Their momentum was well beyond physical comprehension and reaction, so Leo had to rely on his ship sensors to tell him exactly when to drift or jet forward. He managed to barely evade the first drone as it appeared intent on slamming directly into their small craft. Then repeated the nerve wracking maneuver to narrowly avoid each subsequent attack thrown their way. Mikey continued to fire volleys at their attackers when he was able to, but the blasts flickered harmlessly against their superior shield tech. Before long they had a clear path to head full throttle toward Echo’s home planet- or rather its home sphere- and thrusted to their max speed. Due to the dragon’s finely honed skills, they made it close enough to see the magnificent structure with the naked eye when their screen displayed a non-magnified visual from outside the cockpit.

Both anthros immediately wished they weren’t under constant threat by the drones which required all of their concentration. The gargantuan creation was unlike anything they had seen, surpassing even the most intricate theoretical renderings of such structures that they had found. The device appeared to have been built in layers. It must have been at least 40,000 kilometers in diameter. The outermost edge was made of interlocking metal rings constantly spinning in gyrating past one another in an esoteric pattern. Closer to the center were massive steel plates held in place by gravity. There were sometimes immense gaps between these panels. They came in a variety of shapes from simple square panes to complex, zigzagging patterns. These also spun around the core, although slower and in opposition to the majority of the rings further out. More layers went deeper, but the detail was lost with each layer of added visual noise on top of it. At the globe’s center was a glimmering light which filtered outward, its color distorted by what it sparkled past. Seeing it from so far off, it looked like the sphere could be held in the palm of their paws, but they both knew the construction was larger than many planets they had each tread upon.

They barrelled toward it, fearing they wouldn’t make it in the manner they intended. The drones adapted fast. They assessed the ways in which Leo and Mikey evaded them and compensated at a ridiculous rate, seemingly popping up in front of them out of nowhere. Their ability to effortlessly change their momentum and trajectory outstripped any top-of-the-line fighter ship. It would be impossible to defeat.

“I share a programming language with the drones. As they lack their own sentience there will be some input lag from the remote intelligence controlling them. If we are able to get an unobstructed route to the drones, I can connect with and override them by uploading data ahead of what they are already receiving, temporarily scrambling their directives. This will need to be done analog as the drones will almost certainly be emitting an electromagnetic field that will prevent outside interference,” Echo explained. Its voice, or ‘his’ voice as Leo had come to realize he thought of the AI in his head, was as calm and cool as ever. The stark contrast between their dire circumstance and the steady cadence of the suit’s speech was almost unnerving.

“So we just have to safely land and exit the ship and you’ll be able to save us?” The dragon asked while his talons danced across the keypads.

“There is an 86.19% chance that subject “Mikey” will survive an encounter unharmed and an 91.67% chance that subject “Leo” will also be free of physical injury.” Despite the odds being in their favor, apparently, neither felt particularly reassured by the clinical explanation of where they stood. The drake clutched the control for the thrusters and kept it ratcheted it up at its highest setting, intent on landing on the planet-like structure as soon as possible to keep the probability of their survival as high as it was.

The rabbit used the ship’s armaments to deflect attacks as best as he could, but their ammunition, both physical and energy, could only hold out so long and they hadn’t had a full resupply since before the entire ordeal had begun. The display of the mechanical sphere grew and grew until it took up their entire screen as a horizon and they found themselves entering its atmosphere.

The starship jolted harshly as a drone collided with and latched onto it. The robot coiled its cables of seemingly endless length around them as light and heat enveloped them on entry. Warning lights flared and beeped on every console as the automaton constricted their craft and cracked its armor and insulated plating. Leo put a lot of trust in what Echo had said about the drones not risking the AI’s destruction, but when a thin shell was all that separated them from certain doom it was hard to stay optimistic. The power their attacker exerted over the ship made it hard to control. Their nose dipped too low and their stability wavered from the extra weight and damage. The mercenary was an expert pilot, but even he was limited by his organic perception of time and mobility.

His suit sensed this and reacted.

As the reptile struggled to get his controls to respond, Echo started manipulating his claws. It swelled around his arms and began puppeteering him. He yelped, startled, as it made the finest of adjustments to almost every aspect of their trajectory. With the drone wrapped around them, threatening to thoroughly mangle their ship, they drew close to landing. The underside of the plate nearest their coordinates resembled a massive, automated city, but one that was utterly devoid of biological life. It was like a sleek, modern sprawl that had frozen in time. There was a flat stretch of unused space resembling an artificial wilderness that they targeted for their crash landing. What its function was, neither of them could say. If the sphere truly had unlimited space, perhaps its goal was not yet assigned, long forgotten, or currently in use for some unknowable purpose. 

A second drone had latched onto them as they closed in and the others were not far behind. Their ship slowed itself with judicious use of its thrusters as it approached ground, but still crash landed, grinding through layers of terra and metal. If they weren’t still in the heat of combat, one or both of them would wonder if the soil and foliage they had set down in was real or artificial as it seemed like an incomprehensible mixture of both. After a certain point where simulation emulated reality with enough sophistication it didn’t seem to matter.

Leo had Echo to keep him safe, but Mikey took a quick reading to make sure the atmosphere was breathable and the area wasn’t toxic with radiation before pulling on his orange and black suit. The bunny gathered his tools and portable gadgets rather than reach for weapons. He was well aware that if the ship’s blasters couldn’t break through the force fields the drones had, there was little any standard firearm they could bring would do. They needed to rely fully on the artificial intelligence to see them through.

The exterior door had trouble sliding open due to the heavy damage and even when it did, they had to assist by manually prying it. Long cables were twisted and looped around the vessel still. It looked like the drones were crushing any remaining life out of the starship like relentless alien predators. The gray furred hare figured he was in less immediate danger than his mate since the other machines were after Echo (even if that also meant that there was less inherent concern for his safety), so he rolled out first. The bots still might be programmed to eliminate him as a trespasser, but his mate’s intelligent suit was their top priority. To his surprise, the drones paid him no mind. They must have been so fixated on their prime objective to reclaim the AI that he didn’t even warrant consideration.

The dragon followed right behind him. He had to use the valve at his waist to release some of Echo’s inflated bulk to squeeze past the tentacle partially blocking the exit. One of the hovering robots immediately sent a writhing tendril his way, but he darted to the side, bolting away just in time. His suit was in perfect balance with him, and as soon as he twitched and began moving, Echo released some air pressure from a valve on each of his boots, using the sudden surge to increase his speed and keep him out of harm’s way. He landed in a roll. The pillowy rubber cushioned his tumble, and he rolled several times before ending upright and dizzy with assistance from his artificial companion. Another drone came hurtling toward him. Just as it was about to slam directly into him a beam of light emitted from the sentient suit and it projected a hemisphere of shielding energy between them for the alien construction to smash into. After striking the force field it promptly recovered and drifted silently off to the side to find another clear angle of attack. 

Only the two drones had made landfall with them so far, with the others likely only moments behind. They needed to deal with the threat and get moving or they had no hope of succeeding in their mission. On the HUD that Echo projected as a hologram in front of the dragon’s snout he could see miniscule targeting reticles zero in on and overlap with small panels on the drones’ chassis. A square box of magnification zoomed in on them. The robots swam through the air quickly enough that it was difficult to make out, but eventually the adventurer was able to spot the analog ports on it that the AI wanted to point out to him. Echo extended a pair of slender cords with adapters on their tips, one from the wrist of each glove. Leo was so busy dodging and rolling away from potentially fatal blows that he had no idea how he was supposed to connect them to the deadly devices harassing them.

His companion had the benefit of being undisturbed and observed the bizarre melee from a short distance away. Mikey had a strong enough intuition for gadgets and gear that he could spot what needed to be done. He activated his own gloves with a specific series of taps on the back of each paw. They were his own invention. The gloves allowed for universal climbing. They would connect with any surface and stay there as long as he wished without the need for magnetism or amplified, crushing force. His lover and his friend (was Echo a friend?) were in danger and needed help. He didn’t even think twice about what he was about to do. 

He charged forward, taking his partner by surprise as he dove past the dragon into a roll, catching the wires and passing them to his muzzle to hold in his teeth. He sprang away, ears flopping behind him. He deftly evaded a few stray lashes by the drones. The thick, powerful cables crashed into the soil nearby, kicking up a stinging spray of dirt. He hoped that the cords would extend far enough, but Echo seemed to have an endless bag of tricks beneath its mysterious surface and not having enough distance on the cables seemed like the least likely scenario he could think of. With a little help jetting forward from rocket boosters in his boots the lagomorph crashed into one of the drones from the rear and slapped a gloved palm down on it. The textured grip immediately adhered itself. 

The machine jittered and forcefully spun, trying to whip him off of it, but the bunny had zipped through space, thrusting in and out of atmospheres more time than he could count and wasn’t fazed. It seemed like the majority of the drone’s defenses were energy, speed, or sonic based, and other than having a sturdy steel shell had little protection against Mikey’s more mundane tools. He first tried a miniature plasma cutter, but the resistance of the metal carapace to heat seemed on par with Echo and he didn’t even scratch it. What surprisingly ended up working was simply a few good thwacks of his wrench to flip loose the panel. He inserted the cable into the port and had confidence in the AI to do the rest. 

The “easy” part was done. Now he just needed to hop from one drone to the other while the one he was on was still behaving erratically. They regularly passed each other while giving chase to Leo. When he saw his opening he took a deep breath, released his hold on the drone and leapt. His powerful hindquarters served him well. The tip of his spade-tail was mere millimeters from a savage blue blast of kinetic force fired off at him in retaliation. He felt the vibrations whiz by, but had no time for fear. Everything perfectly lined up to keep him healthy and alive, if a few years older from the stress.

He connected with and managed to latch onto the second before repeating the process of jacking Echo into it. Once finished, he pitched himself off and tumbled to the ground. He sprawled out and panted for a moment, letting his heart stop pounding before sitting back up to watch what came next. 

Just as the second drone was connected, Leo saw data streams starting to scroll on his HUD, one belonging to each attacker. The code flew by quicker than he could parse, all in a green stream of text. Lines of cerulean characters started to inject themselves into the flow of information. The robots suddenly seized and listed to one side in perfect sync before shuddering severely. Webs of static crackled across them and every light on their chassis started blinking without any particular pattern. Unceremoniously, they thunked, lifeless, to the ground.

“The drones will require manual reboots to bypass the override I installed, but the other bots in the opening volley are still headed for our position. I’ve updated my own code with elements of theirs. They will no longer be able to remotely detect my presence, but my appearance is still in their accessible files. If we are seen by any camera they will still attack. It is advised that we leave these coordinates immediately,” Echo explained.

Leo knew that if he didn’t heed its warning right away the suit would commandeer his body and force him to safety. He motioned for his mate to come with him. They solidified the next phase of their plan on the move, doing their best to not get distracted along the way. All around them were marvels that rivaled (or in the case of the sphere as a whole, surpassed) Echo. A brilliant light from the harnessed particles above them blocked their view of the other side of the immense ball. They had wrapped around to its interior upon entry and the horizon on either side made a slow sweep upward. They could see off in the distance, before hitting the threshold of what their eyes were capable of, gaps between plates of city-sized computers and alien flora the size of seas. Just like how they had to pass an outer layer on the way in, they could see smaller spheres, each their own feat of engineering, orbiting the core. Every layer was like its own planet with its own ecology and function.

All of this was only within the dimension of their perception as well. Who knew what wonders the theoretical limitless space inside it held? Luckily, due to where they had originally plotted their course, they were already near the laboratory that Echo came from.

They should have been relatively safe for a while due to the suit’s updates to the drones, but they chose to be cautious and give a wide berth to anything that was even remotely mobile or sentient. Despite the fact that they did not see nor detect any organic lifeforms, they approached something akin to an urban cluster of buildings. Every structure in the unusual, condensed city was pristine as if it had only just been manufactured. It struck both the dragon and his mate as odd that an entire civilization capable of such technological wonders had simply ceased to exist and left behind AI capable of carrying on without them. No cataclysm could have destroyed them, since there was no destruction...no evidence of war or unrest...had the people of this planet- this sphere- transcended mortality entirely and merged with the machines? Could that be what some scientists had tried so hard to study and the federation guarding the jump worked so hard to suppress? Could that be what his employers had paid him to find?

He was quickly getting into the realm of rampant speculation and dismissed the notions for the time being.

To their surprise, nothing hassled them as they approached a grand building with sleek architecture. The edifice rose from a foundation below the ground; a rounded wedge crafted of unknown metal that towered before them. There was no door but a large, circular section of wall rippled like liquid metal. It swirled into a viscous eddy before sucking into itself at the edges allowing them to pass through when they drew near. Text in characters they couldn’t comprehend glowed from a panel on the flat exterior wall with a soft luminescence. They didn’t seem to be projected from anywhere, merely glowing from a point in space. The sentient suit translated to Leo via text his HUD and he read it aloud: “Advanced Robotics and Programming Center”

The dragon’s heart skipped a bit and Mikey’s eyes lit up. “Advanced” by the standards of this place!? There had to be so much wild tech inside that they would want to pull out and pick apart. Unfortunately they knew they would have to rein themselves in. This wasn’t a pleasure trip...not that would stop the bunny from filling his pockets with anything that would fit. 

Their plan was a simple one. While heading to the laboratory they ran a diagnostic on their craft. They would split up to minimize the amount of time they were exposed to danger, staying in frequent contact when able. The rabbit would scavenge for any hardware needed to repair their starship, then pillage anything else he could safely bring with him. While that happened, Leo would find the admin key to reprogram Echo. He still didn’t even know what he was looking for. A small drive? A passcode buried in a log somewhere? There was only one way to find out. They scheduled a time and a place to meet up if their comms failed them and tracked each other’s location. Before parting they embraced and kissed, promising that they would each stay safe.

The adventurers nodded to each other resolutely and separated.

Following his beacon, the drake’s path took him deeper into the facility. The passageways he took ended up being sweeping ramps downward. The interior was well lit, and filled with soulless machines working on projects he couldn’t even guess at. Many rooms were empty, dark, and silent. Some had monitors executing tasks on their own. Others were like factory floors with intense, ongoing automation.There was a stark contrast to the makeup of the building. Much of the construction was smooth and minimalist, but there were random portions of brutal, industrial bronze piping and exposed hoses or insulation. He resisted the urge to explore too thoroughly and focused on the task in front of him.

Meanwhile, Mikey made a more systematic search of each floor before proceeding to the next. He was tense. It wasn’t that he was unused to being on his own in dangerous territory. Both he and his mate were well accustomed to dangerous solo missions, but it was hard to not feel out of his depth on this one when it became clear that the alien architecture didn’t fit neatly into the three-dimensional space that it looked like it should from the outside. His scans and automaps had him stand in front of rooms that should be the size of supply closets, only from them to open into massive arenas of space. Quite simply put, the building was larger on the inside. It made his tracking software go haywire trying to account for the distance between him and his fellow mercenary.

It was wondrous and confusing. There was no clear indication what anything did or why, especially without Echo around to translate for the rabbit.

He ended up passing a room that looked completely empty except for a large backpack on a simple, cylindrical pedestal. Mikey would have passed it by, were it not crafted of a similar blend of white material to Echo complete with matching bronze inlay. The pack was otherwise unremarkable in appearance. It was not clearly marked by anything to denote what it did or what was inside, if anything at all. His curiosity piqued, the long eared fur approached to investigate.

When he was about a meter away the backpack unzipped without warning. A long, mechanical arm noisily sprung out of it, startling the bunny. Rather than mechanized claws he had come to expect, the arms instead ended in a white-gloved hand made of a plush, synthetic material. It was comically oversized, with a thumb and three fingers. On its palm was a series of lenses of different sizes and shapes. The lenses rotated, spun, flashed, and buzzed. Some extended toward him while the shudders on others narrowed. 

A biometric scan of his body was suddenly projected into the air nearby. He couldn’t read the data, but it was definitely a perfect hologram of his naked form, including cutaway images showing his musculature and bone structure. It highlighted bits of text etched on gadgets and pieces of gear he had on him and suddenly the blocks of characters started to translate themselves, building out and intuiting his entire language based on what little it was able to detect. Some words and phrases stood out on the display.

“Organic lifeform.” His age next to a slash and a question mark. “Nocturnal incontinence.” “Estimated lifecycle stage: Infant or toddler.” How long did the species that originally constructed the sphere live for their computers to think of him, a fully grown fur, as still young enough to be a cub? “Caregiver absent.” “Primary needs assessed.” “Restrain and prepare for care.”

Several more arms popped out of the backpack and reached in for him from every angle. As big as the bag was, much like the building the lagomorph was standing in, there was no way that the multi-jointed limbs should all fit inside. Mikey was quick enough to react to duck, dodge, and weave his way past the first several grabs, but more and more hands were popping out and quickly and closed in from every angle until he was at last cornered by them. Mikey couldn’t look in any direction without seeing a veritable wall of the grasping gloved, cartoonish hands on either side of him. He panted, still worn out from earlier. He was about to reach for his radio to send a distress signal to Leo when he felt one of the mechanical hands firmly grab his forearm…