A Warehouse Encounter

A logistics coordinator for the Korps runs into something rather unsafe in her workplace environment.
Tags: morphic korps
Modified: 2020-07-06T22:08:20Z
Content Warnings: injury, drone, blood, bullying, knives

The warehouse's aisles, usually filled with busy worker drones, were currently rather more empty, save for a single woman walking in aisle five. The main floor was normally off limits to non-drone workers for safety, but Renae often took the chance for a walk around their charging time. Her strolls around the heavy shelves relaxed her, direct demonstrations of how her work was worth the effort. Renae knew from her teen years that the logistics work in a warehouse is sorely underappreciated for its importance, so she was glad the Korps was so willing to pay such attention to its needs.

She took her boxcutter out of her pocket and began to fidget with it. While her work didn't involve much unloading, she found the black device with the emblazoned pink helix quite comforting to carry, not least of which because of its stimming utility. She flicked the blade in and out absentmindedly, taking her time with her stroll. Renae was glad the Korps allowed for breaks effectively as-needed, as no other workplace would have given her the time to have an hour long walk around a warehouse in the middle of her shift, despite how much it helped her.

Her rambling thoughts were interrupted by her rose-colored glasses reminding her that the drones would be back out in the warehouse soon, and, acknowledging the notification, Renae started walking back to her office, passively glancing around as she walked. She mentally thanked the RCGs for the reminder, she was so forgetful without them. She saw the barrels of drone goo, followed by boxes of specialized drone equipment, a person hiding in-between the boxes, a few crates of gas masks...

"Wait..." Renae thought, almost able to feel her RCGs yanking her train of thought back, "a person? I didn't think anyone else was scheduled today."

A quick check on her glasses, she confirmed her suspicion and immediately noticed the man had ran off since she saw him. Renae quickly ran through the situation in her head. He was hiding between boxes, so he probably wasn't another worker, and the RCGs didn't have facial rec data on him either. She quickly concluded he was an intruder, and thought back to the recent increased Human at Heart activity in the area.

"How would they know this is Korps-owned? This warehouse is through a shell company." Renae pondered, "At the very least, he's probably not alone. They wouldn't send someone alone to storm a whole warehouse, he'd be doomed."

Her RCGs yanked her thinking again, having noticed a sound behind her and, on instinct, Renae pulled out her boxcutter and jumped forward, turning around. In front of her was a man wielding a small knife angrily. He was about her own height, and definitely looked hostile, though her RCGs flagged a bit of trepidation in his face.

"He's nervous," she thought, "maybe I can win this."

Renae had little time to ponder his fear before he slashed at her again, her RCGs again helping her dodge the blow. She took advantage of his lunge with a slash of her own boxcutter, and got a good gash in on his knife arm. The attacker recoiled back in pain, and, with a new determination, immediately tried to slash at her again.

"He doesn't know what he's doing." Renae observed as she dodged out of the way again. Her RCGs were helping her with her knife technique, an assist that almost made the fight too easy. Again and again the man clumsily lunged at Renae, and every time she dodged out of the way, getting in multiple good strikes down his knife arm as she did.

The man panted with exhaustion, his arm stained in crimson. He tried yet again to lunge at his uninjured opponent, clearly frustrated at his failure to hit her even once. This time, however, Renae moved differently. She managed to grab his wrist, pull the knife out of his hand, and toss it to the side of the aisle. It was trivial from this point for Renae to toss the man to the ground too, holding him down with her boot on his chest.

"How many others?" Renae aggressively asked, holding her boxcutter to the man's neck.

"N-none! It's just me, I swear!" the man said, clearly terrified at Renae. Internally, she was terrified as well, but the emotional stabilization of her glasses helped her keep up her intimidating façade.

"You're alone? Why would Human at Heart send you on something so doomed to fail?"

"T-they didn't send me," the man stuttered out, "I... wanted to prove myself. Show that I'm strong."

Renae had the RCGs help her analyze the man's answers. She had heard of this sort of indirect hazing pattern, but she hadn't expected to encounter it herself.

"You were never going to be strong enough to take on a whole warehouse on your own. If you had come ten minutes later, you would have been trampled by worker drones." At hearing the word 'drone' the man's eyes lit up, though Renae couldn't tell if it was in interest, terror, or both.

"P-p-please don't turn me into one of those I want to be free don't turn me into a girl pleasepleaseplease."

"Oh? And why shouldn't I? You just attacked this place, clearly no-one was going to miss you anyways. I could always use another worker drone for this warehouse. And besides," Renae said, leaning down closer to the man's face, blade right next to his neck, "you want this, don't you, Tulip?"

"T-tulip?"

"Well of course. You didn't tell me that old name of yours, and those floral scars I left on your arm are so pretty."

"Bu-ah-wha-I don't, I don't..." the man stammered, trailing off.

"Oh, but you do, don't you? You want only to just give in~. That must've been why you wanted to attack this place, Tulip, you wanted to get captured. To surrender. Come on, you know you want it~"

"S-stop getting into my head! Your mind control won't work on me."

"Oh honey, I ain't mind controlling you yet~." Renae said, flicking the blade on her boxcutter in and out, "all those thoughts, realizing the girl inside, those are all on you. Now, don't you want to just give in?"

Tulip kept struggling for a little bit, before stopping to weakly nod.

"Good~. Now let's get you over to medical, Tulip. We don't want those cuts to get infected."


Renae looked in the bathroom mirror as she cleaned off the blood from her boxcutter. She'd guided the newly-discovered girl over to medical to have her wounds dressed, and Renae suspected the debridement would end up being mental as well. Satisfied with her cleaning efforts, she popped the blade back into her tool and started to walk back to her office. She hadn't expected to hatch an egg today, much less slice it open, but the experience, traumatizing as it should have been, put a spring in her step.


She loved working for the Korps.