[ WP ] ... a drone had been circling the region for days .

A mechanical eye was suspended in the sky, quietly hummed in solitude. In the distance, an orange sun set through a dusty haze. The sleek grey aluminum airframe ran through the irradiated, crisp air, far above the smoldering skeletons of a city. 
 
 The MQ-15 was an prop-driven, solar-powered observational drone of a bygone era. Brought to service in an unlikely war, it became the unlikely evidence for proof that people were once here. 
 
 The stressed vessel survived the great flashes that vaporized a civilization below. Periodically, the drone's solar powered batteries whined as they sent another bleep to satellites that hung above the sterile continent. 
 
 In the distant vacuum of space, the eyeless prophet floated in the place where the blackness of night met the ashy hue of day. The satellites meticulously trawled through the PGP encrypted list of counterparts of manned bases on the ground and dispersed a request for orders. 
 
 There was a lack of a response. No matter, they would continue onto their destruction, forever looking for a reply that will never come.
