Wild Fields - Zarka and Helga

Zarka and Helga. Zarka used to dream about changing the world. Then the wars came, and the dreams got shattered by high velocity tungstem shrapnel. Embers of her once proud, beautiful heart held together by spells and Helgas nanotech, the main objective for now is protecting the remains of her little tribe.
Helga is a reactivated, sentient, ancient combat drone of a very rare kind - she, in theory, has the capability to build new drones. Sadly, those circuits are no longer working, but she holds on to the hope they might be repaired someday.

Relationship between humans and drones is almost symbiotic. Humans generally enjoy having a mechanical companion with large destructive capability. Drones need the contact with human mind, so that their own (inherently unstable) minds won't detoriorate into incoherent madness. Intended lifespan was measured in months, not centuries. And while neural link tech was lost to time, it is possible to recreate, and even surpass, this functionality using clever coding, witchraft and, sadly, small animal sacrifice. The connection itself is not "human controlling the machine", it's two minds cooperating. Or arguing, which happens often...