Ad Astra Per Aspera
by LadyDaybreaker is a series of fanfics of Murder Drones. It has 6 entries so far.
- To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Creation is a prequel to the entire series that documents the events of Project Solver and what led to the Core Collapse.
- Memento Nori Focuses on Nori Doorman after the Core Collapse, dealing with the Absolute Solver, visions of the Sky Demons, and her own child. Sequel to To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Creation.
- Like the Stars Focuses on Uzi's life pre-Pilot and expands the events between the first 4 episodes. Sequel to Memento Nori.
- What Friends Are For Focuses on the aftermath of the Camp Massacre and what occurred between Episode 4 and 5 with Episode 6 being covered as well. Currently on hiatus.
- Ad Astra Per Aspera - A series of mini-fics and one shots that take place in the world of "Ad Astra Per Aspera."
- Ad Astra Per Aspera Appendices - A series of appendices that expand the world of "Ad Astra Per Aspera."
Ad Astra Per Aspera contains examples of:
Series-wide
- Adaptation Expansion: The series expands on the Murder Drones universe by further detailing the events that led to the Core Collapse and Nori's death years later and expanding the events between episodes.
- Always Identical Twins: Alice and Emma look almost exactly the same. Unfortunately, this causes Uzi to suffer a panic attack when she encounters the latter in Ad Astra Per Aspera.
- Amnesiac Hero: 2 examples.
- Nori, Yeva and the other 98 Workers kidnapped for Project Solver get their memories wiped to keep them from trying to escape. It doesn't stick however as Yeva manages to unlock the suppressed memories of the Test Subjects.
- N is also this after his Heel–Face Turn. When his squad first landed, he ended up getting his memories fried and causing him to forget his life as a Worker and Tessa.
- Anachronic Order: None of the four main stories in the series were released in the order they are set chronologically. It was so for the first installments; Memento Mori was released first and is set in the pre-canon of the show while What Friends Are For was set during the timespan of the show starting from after episode 4. Then the authoress released To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Creation as a prequel to Memento Mori, thusly introducing the Anachronic Order. Like the Stars continued the trend, being the fourth installment while chronogically being set in-between the first and second installments.
- An Arm and a Leg: Happens a few times throughout the series with a notable example being in the climax of To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Own Creation where Nori is forced to chop her own hand off to stop the Solver from destroying Copper-9.
- Asshole Victim: Several throughout the series.
- The Supervisor who dies at the hands of a Solver-possessed Nori but given how much of a racist, supremacist, vindictive ass he is, he deserves it.
- James, Louisa and the Frumplebucket Twins end up dying at the hands of Cyn and her thralls but given how cruel and sadistic they are, they will not be missed.
- The Assimilator: Eldritch Cyn, Nori, Yeva and J devour Workers and humans alike to gather materials to rebuild themselves.
- Back from the Dead: Some examples.
- Cyn, J, V, N and other Zombies Drones come back after being improperly disassembled by the Elliots.
- Nori and Yeva return after the materials collection process is complete.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Like in canon, Eldritch Drones engage in this.
- Blinding Camera Flash: Same as canon, the Sentinels use this to stun their prey. They had some trial and error with getting the right frequency as a poor 047 can test to.
- Body Horror: What happens to both the Solver and Disassembler Drones.
- Calling Your Attacks: Like in canon, the Solver does so.
- Cassandra Truth: 2 examples so far.
- In To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Creaton, Yeva learns the truth of what the 'coolant' is, but no listens to her.
- Nori's ramblings about the Sky Demons and the Singularity aren't taken seriously by most of the Worker Drone population who see it as a sign of her insanity. Khan listened though and managed to build Outpost 3 to protect the Workers from the Disassemblers.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Happens to the Solver Drones during Project Solver. The techs refer to it as testing. Uzi also suffers this at the hands of a deranged Alice.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The various Solver Drones have different coloured-glyphs based on their eye colours.
- Deadpan Snarker: A lot of the characters engage in making snarky comments.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The Eldritch Drones engage in this. The person doesn't have to be dead as a lucky Thad can attest but a lot of the drones it impersonates are victims.
- Deal with the Devil: Cyn and the Solver-infected Test Subjects are offered a deal by the Solver that in exchanging for reviving them and allowing them to use It's powers, they will allow it to possess them. Subject 001/Karl and Subjects 81-100 (Evens) didn't accept the deal and were left to die.
- Deep South: Alice and Emma have a southern accent as in canon.
- Defiant Captive: 2 examples.
- In To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Creation, The Solver Drones particularly Nori do their best to annoy and anger their captors.
- In What Friends Are For, when the group get captured by a deranged Alice, Uzi and V taunt and bite off Alice's finger, respectively.
- Doomed by Canon: Nori, the Solver-infected Test Subjects, James, Louisa, the entire human population of Copper-9...to name a few.
- Downer Beginning: Several examples.
- To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Creation, after Nori and Khan have their wedding, Nori is kidnapped for Project Solver along with the others.
- Like The Stars starts with Nori's funeral and Emma and Luke leaving Outpost 3.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Those infected with Strain A of the Solver can sometimes see the future through dreams.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Earth, Proxima-1 and Plat-4 all suffer this at the hands of a Solver-possessed Cyn. Copper-9 nearly gets destroyed as well but Nori manages to stop the destruction at the last minute.
- Emerald Power: Max has green eyes and wields the Absolute Solver. In an alternate timeline in Ad Astra Per Aspera, Thad's Solver activates, allowing him to use it.
- EMP: Used to great effect against the Workers.
- Endless Winter: Same as canon, Copper-9 is shrouded in eternal winter.
- Fantastic Racism: The humans are heavy prejudiced against the Workers, seeing them as non-human and treating them as sub-human. There are a few exceptions such as Tess and Ava.
- Fingore: Happens disturbingly a lot in this series.
- Grand Theft Me: As in canon, the Solver possesses Cyn, Nori and Uzi at several points throughout the series.
- Greed: Most of the actions that JcJenson commits is out of profits such as the case with Project Solver.
- Healing Factor: The Solver Drones are capable of regenerating from any wounds as long as they're not too damaging or they have enough oil.
- Hologram Projection Imperfection: Same as canon with some of the holograms that the Solver uses.
- Horror Hunger: The Solver-infected Drones and Disassemblers all have to feed on the oil of their fellow Workers to avoid overheating and dying.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: The Solver-infected Drones, Disassemblers and Sentinels are this as in canon.
- In the Back: The Eldritch Drones' favourite method of attack.
- It Is Dehumanising: All the humans seen onscreen besides Tessa and Ava refer to the Drones as "It" which demonstrates their belief that drones are inferior and non-sentient.
- Just Think of the Potential!: The reason behind Project Solver.
- Machine Blood: Same as canon, the Workers' blood is oil.
- Memento MacGuffin: Same as canon, the Solver Drones' skull chokers are this as both Uzi and Doll wear them.
To Stay in Heaven, For Fear of Your Creation
- 13 Is Unlucky: Subject 013 gets the displeasure of having Nori use her Solver powers on him.
- Adaptational Explanation: In the story, it's revealed that Beau is Alice and Luke's child and was created to see if he would inherit the Solver from his father.
- Agony of the Feet: In Chapter 6, Nori gets her left foot chopped off as part of testing.
- Bittersweet Ending: On the positive side of things, Nori and Yeva have reunited with their husbands, the Workers are free. On the bitter side of things, Copper-9 has been plunged into an eternal winter, killing all humans, 3 planets have been destroyed by the Solver, Alice and the others are trapped underground, and Nori starts to go insane.
- Blood Oath: This exchange between Nori and the Solver below.Nori: So now what...I have to do an oil pact with you or somethin?The Absolute Solver: Eyeroll. No such barbaric thing. A simple Yes/No will suffice.
- Cabin Fever: What happens to the Test Subjects initially as they're locked inside their rooms all the time outside of tests. Ava manages to convince the technicians to allow the Test Subjects to meet up in a large space.
- Christmas Episode: Chapter 17 is this in a nutshell as it takes place on Christmas and has the Test Subjects trying to escape.
- Damsel in Distress: Emma jokingly refers to Nori as this when they're preparing to storm the Labs to rescue the kidnapped Workers.
- Downer Ending: Several examples throughout the story, unfortunately.
- Chapter 1 ends with Nori being kidnapped.
- Chapter 10 ends with Nori undergoing her "Solver Form" transformation.
- Chapter 19 ends with the escape attempt failing and the Test Subjects getting recaptured.
- Chapter 20 ends with Luke dying.
- Chapter 22 ends with Nori and Yeva dying and ending up becoming Eldritch Nori and Yeva
- Chapter 24 ends with Solver-possessed Nori breaking loose and on her way to destroy the Core.
- Dreaming of Times Gone By: Before getting her memories back, Nori has some memories about her life pre-Project Solver.
- Dwindling Party: Over the course of the story, Project Solver's Test and Control Groups get reduced in number and by the time of the story's ending, only Nori, Yeva, Max, Bonnie, Ali, Sam, Alice, Beau, 029, 033, 053 and 59 are left with them all dying later on.
- Eaten Alive: Subject 025 suffers this fate at the hands of a feral Nori.
- Expecting Someone Taller: When Nori and Alice first meet in Chapter 14, the latter remarks that she was expecting Nori to be taller.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Khan calls the installation of a Solver Core into Karl, "[Playing] frankenstein with him".
- Great Escape: The remaining Test Subjects of Project Solver attempt to do this with priority being given to Alice, Luke and Beau.
- Home by Christmas: The Test Subjects' escape attempt takes place on Christmas where the humans will be distracted and not paying attention.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: The security team member states that drones with the ability to self-repair and mistreating them is just "asking for trouble" which a technician calls her out for, due to her calling Ava a nutcase 2 weeks before the events of Eldritch Nori and Yeva's rampage.
- I Have Your Wife: JcJenson's scientists kidnap Khan and Alexei's wifes, Nori and Yeva for Project Solver, though they don't tell them that they have their wives.
- Insistent Terminology: The humans refuse to entertain the notion of the Drones being similar to them in any way. They refer to Nori and Khan's positions as "Head Repair Drone" and "Head Constructor" when their titles should be "Head Doctor and "Head Architect"
- Instant Death Bullet: During the escape attempt, a nearby Alexei watches Cody go down from being shot. While Nori, Alice and Luke are trying to run to the exit, they witness Control Group Test Subjects being executed by gunshots.
- I Will Find You: Khan promises to do so in Chapter 2.
- Kidnapped Doctor: Nori, Ali and Sam are kidnapped for Project Solver. Not for their medical expertise but to see how the Solver affects different Drones with different professions.
- Kidnapped for Experimentation: The 40 Solver Drones were kidnapped to see if how the Solver affects them.
- Kidnapped While Sleeping: The mass-kidnapping of the 100 occurs at night.
- Language Barrier: JcJenson technicians are supposed to learn English, Russian and French but some like Stevens refuse to do so which partly costs his life during a feral Nori's rampage.
- Laughing Mad: Mia constantly does this throughout her appearances.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: What Nori says verbatim in Chapter 4.
- Nori: Let me get this straight. You want me. To just take that box...and move it to the other side of the room. That's it. That's the test.Technician: Correct.
- Mad Artist: Mia is shown drawing images of the Absolute Solver, which is a sign of her insanity.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Luke and Alice are forced to make a Pill Drone so the humans could see if the Pill Drone could inherit the Solver from Luke.
- The Maze: Chapter 6 has Nori, Yeva, 013 and 075 competing in a race within a maze with traps.
- Moral Myopia: The JcJenson technicians are perfectly okay with torturing and kidnapping drones for Project Solver but when one of their own gets bitten by an oil-starved Nori, they get angry.
- Neck Snap: Nori is forced to kill 021 and first does so with this.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: JcJenson screws up quite frequently throughout the story.
- Putting the disassembled Test Subjects in the same compactor as other non-Test Subject Workers leads to Khan, Alexei and Emma getting a hint to where the kidnapped drones were taken.
- As Ava points out in Chapter 9, taking away the Head Repair Drone Nori, has resulted in tons of preventable Worker Drone casualties, which will reduce output and cost money to replace the disassembled Workers.
- Not listening to Ava and feeding the Solver Drones more which results in casualties.
- Forcing Alice and Luke to transfer their AI into a droneling body to make a Pill Drone galvanises the Solver Drones into trying to escape and tell the other Workers about what's happening. While the escape doesn't succeed, Alexei discovers what is going on and informs the other Workers, resulting in them planning to storm the labs.
- No Name Given: Most of the Test Subjects remain unnamed.
- No Waterproofing in the Future: Same as the series, the Workers aren't waterproof which a technician demonstrates in Chapter 20 when they pour water on Nori.
- Off with His Head!: Happens offscreen before Chapter 8 to Nori. Also happened to Luke at one point, which traumatised Alice when they threw his headless body back into their room.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: One of the technicians gets freaked out by Solver-possessed Nori and the contrast between her and regular Nori.
- Organ Theft: Alice, Emma, Jessie and other Harvester Drones routinely take spare parts from disassembled Workers to give to the Repair Ward.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Solver Drones act like the traditional vampire, having to drink oil, can't go out in the sunlight, can regenerate, are stronger than the average Worker, don't do well with mirrors and can only be destroyed through sunlight or destruction of the core.
- Painful Transformation: It's clear that Nori's first transformation is agonising to undergo.
- Paint the Town Red: The Cabin Fever Labs become covered in Worker oil and body parts in the aftermath of Eldritch Nori and Yeva's rampage.
- Pit Trap: One of the traps in The Maze seen in Chapter 6.
- Political Hostage: According to
Word of God, the Solver experiments were a retribution inflicted on the Workers to keep them from revolting again. - Prehensile Tail: Solver Drones infected with "Strain A" have a long tail with a mouth.
- Prequel: Serves as this to the entirety of Ad Astra Per Aspera.
- Powers as Programs: Same as canon, the Absolute Solver is this.
- Pupating Peril: Nori becomes this as her "Solver Form" is activated.
- Purple Is Powerful: Nori has purple eyes and is a host of the Absolute Solver.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ava frequently calls out the JcJenson technicians for their incompetence and way of dealing with problems.
- Rebel Leader: It's revealed that Khan was the leader of the Worker Drone Revolt that took place 8 years before the events of this story. He becomes this again when the WDs prepare to storm the Cabin Fever Labs to rescue the kidnapped Workers.
- Red Filter of Doom: The lights in the disassembly room are red, adding to the creepiness.
- Robot Maid: In the private housing sector of Copper 9, the humans employ a type of Worker Drones known as Servant Drones that dress in both maid and butler uniforms.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Same as canon with the Solver doing so.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: The Supervisor apparently screams like this as a Solver-possessed Nori notes.
- Seers: Those with "Strain A" of the Absolute Solver (Nori, Luke, etc) can see the future.
- Shock Stick: The JcJenson scientists use cattle prods to keep the Solver Drones in line during the earlier parts of testing.
- Shout-Out: Word of God states that Yeva's Solver Form is a nod to Kirie from Internecion Cube.
- Sole Survivor: Like canon, Tessa is the only survivor of the Gala Massacre. N, V and J are also confirmed to be the only drones that survived the night as well as it's confirmed that the Solver destroyed every drone that worked in Elliot Manor but spared N, V and J due to Cyn's affection for them.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Cyn has golden eyes due to being possessed by the Absolute Solver. Same with Nori when she gets possessed as well.
- Tears of Joy: When Alexei and Yeva first reunite, the former starts to cry, which Yeva notes that he never does. At the end, Nori does this along with Khan, Alexei and Yeva when they're reunited.
- Teleportation: Those with Yeva's strain of the Solver can do this.
- Terms of Endangerment: The Solver calls the Solver-Infected Test Subjects, Little Sister or Brother like how it calls N Big Brother in the show.
- Three Laws-Compliant: Averted with the Solver Drones as the Solver blocks it. Played straight with the Sentinels, though.
- Token Black Friend: Bonnie is the only Worker Drone throughout the story that speaks French, implying that she is from the French sector.
- Token Good Teammate: Like her niece Tessa, Ava is one of the few good humans that work for JcJenson which is why a Solver-possessed Nori spares her.
- Troubled Fetal Position: Nori does this in Chapter 8, clearly traumatised from what has happened to her.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: JcJenson takes the Test Subjects from their homes.
- The Virus: The Solver is compared to a virus with there being 2 strains among the even-numbered Test Subjects. 2-40 (Even-numbered) have Nori's strain while 41-80 (Even-numbered) have Yeva's strain.
- Wedding Episode: The beginning of Chapter 1 is this.
- We Used to Be Friends: Nori and Ava were close before the start of this story. By the time Nori has her memory restored, their friendship has soured a little as Ava won't let the Test Subjects go back home or stop the testing.
- You Are Number 6: The 100 Workers kidnapped for Project Solver are given numbers based on what order that they were taken in. The remaining 80 after the start of the project were divided into 2 groups: Control Group (Odd-numbered Test Subjects) and Test Group (Even-numbered Test Subjects) with the latter group being infected with the Solver.
- You Have Failed Me: The last "Head Constructor" before Khan was slated for disassembly due to a shaft collapse that occured.
