Robot Wars: Thrown Into the Fray

by Nicholas Haring

  Fischer knelt down and put his ear to the concrete of the bunker and tried to focus off the electric hum. He could feel the vibrations and knew all too well what they were.

  “Shit, they’re within two-thousand meters,” Fischer said, and then stood up.

  “What? How’s that possible, sir?” Thompson exclaimed, which woke up a groggy Porter.

  “Thompson, Porter, get everyone up. We might be fighting sooner than what we thought,” Fischer order.

  The two were out with a flash. Less than a minute later Hartford came running in.

  “What the hell is going on, Cap?” Hartford asked.

  “Here, take a look for yourself, Hartford,” Fischer said, handing the binoculars over to her. “One o’clock, crest of the rise on the horizon.”

  Hartford gave a quick look and her face told Fischer that she had saw it almost immediately.

  “Son of a shit, they’re already within laser turret range!” Hartford said with a flabbergasted look on her face.

  “Jones… Jones, come in. We need to sound an all-units general alert. We’ve got an unknown number of hostiles heading this way. They’re within two-thousand meters and closing,” Fischer said through his headset.

  “Roger, sir. Cap, I haven’t been able to get ahold of General Williams or Division HQ,” Jones said.

  “Okay, just focus on alerting all of the frontline units. Oh, and Jones, don’t forget to inform Colonel McGregor and Colonel Purcell,” Fischer said.

  “On it, sir,” Jones responded.

  “Akiyama, come in. I need you and Lander to give me a rough estimate on the strength of the forces we’re facing,” Fischer said.

  “Five minutes, sir,” Akiyama responded.

  Hartford handed back the binoculars to Fischer. She looked as though she didn’t want to look through them anymore, almost like she was disgusted by what she was seeing.

  Fischer looked through the binoculars again. The shapes were becoming more defined; he began to make out individual silhouettes here and there. He could now sense the ground impact tremors accompanied by a slight rumble underneath the electric hum. The line of silhouettes now stretched from one side of the valley to the other.

  “Sir, we have seven Mark Fours and hundreds of Mark Threes. There are an innumerable number of Ones and Twos mixed in there as well,” Akiyama said coolly.

  “Thanks for the update, Akiyama. Keep me posted on any changes and stand-by to engage,” Fischer ordered.

  “Wilco, sir.”

  “Sir, I’ve informed Captain Rhodes and Lieutenant Harlan. They’re getting ready right now. I still haven’t been able to get ahold of General Williams and Colonel McGregor is counter-manning your alert order, sir,” Jones said.

  “Damn it! Patch me in with McGregor right now,” Fischer demanded.

  Fischer could hear the beeping noises as Jones was patching in Fischer’s headset with McGregor’s.

  “Captain Fischer, can you tell me why you sounded a general alert order? We have no reports of the HRUOs heading this way, and Williams …”

  “Listen, Colonel McGregor, we don’t have time for this; we have the entire robot force heading this way, less than two kilometers out, sir!” Fischer yelled.

  “You’re beside yourself, Captain. I haven’t received any reports and I’m sure High Command would be aware of such movements. Now, until I see anything that confirms what you’re reporting, then we’ll go on alert, but until then we stand-down, is that clear?” McGregor said pompously.

  “Colonel, sir, I can’t stress this enough. The robots are less than two-thousand meters away. You need to get the laser turrets activated now!” Fischer exclaimed once more, trying to emphasize the seriousness of their predicament.

  “Captain Fischer, I am the highest ranking officer here and my orders will be followed. If you don’t like it, we can take it up the chain later, but for now, until I see or hear differently the alert is canceled. We need our soldiers rested and …”

  “Damn it, sir! We need to-”

  McGregor had hung-up on him.

  “Mother fucker!” Fischer yelled in frustration as he threw his helmet and headset up against the wall, almost breaking them.

  “I never did like the Reg officers; stuck-up pricks the lot of them,” Hartford said as she continued to look out the firing slit of the bunker.

  Fischer looked out too and could see the robot army with his naked eyes now.

  “McGregor must be fucking blind,” Fischer said.

  “Well, he does have glasses. He must not have put them on, or he needs to get new ones,” Hartford joked.

  Fischer shook his head, picked up his helmet and headset, and put them back on. They were going to get caught with their pants down; it was going to be a rout. He wondered if he should pull the 2nd Battalion out altogether and leave the Regs to their fate. However, nice the thought seemed, he could never abandon a defensive position that easily. It would go against his principals. He would just have to deal with it and adapt. Keeping together unit cohesion as they fell back would be a challenge, but it was something he had done before.

  Fischer then noticed flashes of light from some of the silhouettes.

  “What the hell is that?” Hartford asked as she saw it too.

  A series of faint thuds closely followed the flashes.

  “Oh shit! We’ve got incoming!” Fischer yelled through the mic on his headset.

  Chapter 32

  The snow was falling lightly in huge flakes, as Brookes walked down the snow-covered mountain road that led from her Grandma’s cabin to the valley down below.

  Brookes knew this place well. She used to spend winter break here with her Grandmother when she was in grade school, before she died.

  The small cabin nestled in the Lemhi Range in Eastern Idaho became known locally as a favorite stop on the snowmobile and cross-country ski trail that ran nearby. Her Grandma would serve free hot cocoa and coffee to anyone who stopped by for a rest or a chat.

  Brookes was never much for socializing, not like her Grandma anyway. She preferred the solitude of the mountains more than the company of strangers. The snow-covered forests and mountain peaks were in stark contrast to the landscaped parks and uniformed office skyscrapers of New Omaha. Silence was the music here and the wind was its harmony she used to think.

  She walked further down the road, the frosted pine trees towered over her as she followed some small footprints to what she remembered to be her favorite spot; a small rickety wooden bridge that spanned a gently flowing brook. The brook never froze, thanks to the hot spring close-by that fed into it.

  She remembered how she used to sit and lay on the boulders at the edge of the water and feed the fish, which had grown accustomed to her presence; they would gather around whenever she came by.

  She could see the bridge at the bottom of the incline, shrouded in a steamy mist rising off the warm water. She thought about sliding down the rest of the way for a second, like when she was a kid, but her better judgment decided against it.

  The cold never bothered her out here. It always felt as though the outside world had stopped, and this was the only place in the whole world for the time she was here. She was the only one whoever came to this place. Her grandma could never make it down the hill - or up it for that matter - and the road had been closed to traffic for quite some time after they built a new bridge further downstream.

  It was her very own special little place. She never took pictures of it or even talked about it to anyone, other than her Grandma. She was always afraid her secret would get out and others would come and ruin the peacefulness and serenity.

  The mist coming off the brook was thicker than what she remembered as she hesitantly stepped on the bridge. The bridge creaked and rocked slightly. The wooden guardrails were in a poor state of disrepair, but they looked and felt sturdy enough to at least hold her weight.

  Brookes brushed away the snow in front of her. She didn’t want to step on a weak board and fall throu
gh. Some of the boards had holes and large cracks in them, so she carefully stepped over those, but luckily most of them weren’t that bad.

  She shook the guardrail to her left, making sure she could lean on it and look at the water below as it flowed down stream. She brushed off the snow and laid her arms down on the rail, positioning them just so, so she wasn’t on the bent rusted nail sticking out of one of the joints that held two rail boards together.

  This bridge is going to spontaneously collapse, I just know it, Brookes thought as she tried to relax her posture.

  Brookes glanced to her right and saw a little girl in a lime-green coat, lying belly first on one of the big boulders at the edge of a lightly swirling pool. Brookes, startled, did a double-take. The little girl looked just like herself when she was little. It was uncanny and it freaked her out a bit.

  The little girl hadn’t noticed Brookes on the bridge and she wasn’t about to spook the girl neither. She didn’t want her to slip and fall into the water. The little girl was just staring at the fish and poking her fingers into the water every so often. The fish obviously didn’t like being taunted and would thrash around splashing the water in protest.

  “I’ll get you some more food,” the little girl said as she quickly jumped up from the rock and made her way up the snowy bank to the bridge.

  Brookes panicked for a second. She didn’t know whether to hide or stay. The little girl made her way up to the bridge suddenly before Brookes could react. The girl stopped when she saw Brookes standing there and just stood there at the bridge portal, looking surprised someone else was here.

  The two stared at each other for a moment. Brookes could tell from the hair, from the coat, and from the face, that this had to be her when she was a kid around seven or eight.

  “You’re not going to tell anyone about this place, are you?” the little girl asked as she looked at Brookes with some suspicion.

  “No, I love this place. I didn’t think anyone else knew about it,” Brookes said.

  “That’s good. My name is Madison. What’s your name?” Madison asked.

  “My name is Ma -- Matty,” Brookes said; she couldn’t believe she thought of such a stupid name.

  “Heh… Matty? That’s a funny name,” Madison said.

  “Yeah, well… so what are you doing, Madison?” Brookes asked.

  “I’m going to get some bread to feed the fish. They get grumpy when they’re hungry,” Madison said as she began to walk across the bridge without watching as to where she was stepping. Seeing this set Brookes’ teeth on edge. She couldn’t believe this little girl would walk so haphazardly across such a dangerous bridge.

  “Be careful, Madison, this bridge doesn’t seem very safe,” Brookes said.

  Madison then started to skip past Brookes; the bridge shaking with each bounce. Brookes could hear the electric hum off to the right in the distance. It was very low but slowly building. She closed her eyes and shook her head; it seemed to almost completely fade away when she re-opened them.

  “See. It’s okay,” Madison said as she spun around. “Hey, do you want to come with me and get some hot chocolate?”

  “What about the fish?” Brookes asked.

  “We can do both,” Madison said as she leapt off the bridge and slid on the snowy road. “Come on, Brookes!”

  “Huh? Ye-Yeah… okay,” Brookes said as she carefully turned and made her way back across. The boards looked like they were quickly rotting and falling away in front of her; the electric hum grew louder.

  “Come on, Brookes. Wake up!” Madison said loudly.

  Brookes was really confused.

  “How did you …?” Brookes tried to ask as more boards fell away closer and closer to her; the bridge was crumbling around her.

  “Brookes, wake up damn it, please!” Madison yelled. Her voice had changed; it sounded more like Samson’s.

  An ear-splitting explosion to her right sent Brookes hurtling off the bridge and towards the water. Madison seemed to be unaffected by the explosion and watched Brookes fly through the air with a look of mild curiosity.

  Brookes looked towards the water as it quickly transitioned to the dark concrete of the mortar pit walls. She slammed against the wall - hard; a sharp pain shooting down her neck and left shoulder.

  “Oh my god, Lieutenant! Are you okay?” Samson asked loudly, over the blasts exploding all around their mortar pit.

  “Wha-what’s going on?” a confused Brookes asked. She felt as though she had been transplanted to this place instantly with no memory of how she could have gotten here.

  “We’re under attack, ma’am! Threes are dropping shells on us! They’re only a thousand meters out!” Samson yelled over more close explosions.

  “A thousand meters?” Brookes was confused as Samson helped her up and over to the mortar.

  “Sorry, I was trying to wake you up earlier, ma’am, but I was honestly starting to think you were dead,” Samson smirked as he got a round ready. “Just tell me the clicks.”

  Brookes was still a little dazed, the intense dream and the slamming of her head against the side of the mortar pit sure didn’t help. She turned on her headset which let off a screech and then nothing.

  “Throw them in at five clicks, until I tell you differently, Samson,” Brookes said as she switched her headset off and then back on; it made only a wobbling sound this time.

  “Hartford - Hartford, are you there? I need target coordinates, over!” Brookes yelled over the explosions and the laser turret to their left firing continuously.

  “Th-K -od Br-es, we nee- -re at -rlie d-a tw- -ee!” Hartford yelled back, but her voice was breaking up over the wobbly noise and the static.

  “Hartford come in, you’re breaking up!” Brookes yelled.

  “Br- we- -ting j-med. T-et ch-ie …”

  Hartford’s voice was completely drowned out over the wobbly noise and static. The headset made another high pitch screech and then shut off.

  “Shit, I think the collision broke my headset,” Brookes said to Samson as she took it off.

  “So how are we going to know where to shoot?” Samson asked.

  Brookes remembered she had a range finding scope in her pack.

  “We’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way,” Brookes said as she quickly dug through her pack as Samson put another round in the mortar tube.

  Brookes found the scope, but the clinking of broken glass tipped her off that it had been smashed, likely during the explosion that threw her up against the wall.

  “Damn it, it’s broken and they’re probably too busy to send a runner back here. Samson …” Brookes said as Samson turned to pay attention to what she was about to say. “Samson, I need you to stay here and keep firing at the range I’ve set. I’ll go find Hartford or someone and figure out which targets we need to hit, okay?”

  Samson smiled and nodded his head confidently as though he were waiting for this moment to prove himself.

  “I’ll keep it shooting, ma’am.”

  Brookes patted Samson on the shoulder and exited the trench.

  *****

  Brookes was almost to the end of the mortar pit trench that led to the main access trench running perpendicular to the one she was in. Brookes had kept as low as possible as she made her way down, but the roar of the battle around beckoned her to look up, just for a moment.

  Sticking her head just above the brim of the trench, Brookes could see the robot mass heading her way. She couldn’t see any Fours as they were probably too far away, but the Ones and Twos were almost at the snag wire; Kazir and the laser turret in their sector were decimating those, thankfully.

  Brookes watched on as Phaetons here and there strafed the robot line, and then break-off to avoid the missiles launched by the Fours. One unlucky Phaeton failed to evade in time and was shot down, crashing in a fiery explosion way off to her left.

  Brookes was in complete awe of what was going on; it made yesterday seem like a practice run in the simulator. She didn�
�t pay attention to how long she was keeping her head above the trench and was soon reminded of it when a laser blast struck a meter in front of her face. Brookes ducked quickly, rubbed the dirt out of her eyes, and then hurried to the main trench.

  A massive explosion from behind threw her from the trench and halfway down the stairs of the hideaway bunker. Cross came running up from the bunker to check on her.

  “Are you all right, Lieutenant?” Cross asked as Brookes’ ears rung.

  Brookes nodded as Cross helped her up.

  “Where’s Hartford?” Brookes asked, though she wasn’t sure how loud she said it, because of the ringing.

  “Check up near the front bunker; Captain Fischer is over there. I’m sure he knows where Hartford is. You can follow me. I need to go check on PFC. Riley; he’s been hit in arm,” Cross said as she helped Brookes up off of the stairs until she could stand up on her own. Cross didn’t wait for Brookes, though, as she ran down to the frontline trench without her. Brookes staggered for a bit, trying to get her bearings as she made her way to the front.

  *****

  Brookes entered the frontline trench and noticed that it was getting noticeably brighter out. She glanced at her watch; it read 7:28AM. She snapped her head up and looked slightly to her left; Cross was bandaging up Riley’s right arm as he winced in pain. Martin was up on the firing step to their right just left of the front bunker, shooting his laser rifle and ducking intermittently when the incoming laser blasts got too close.

  “Sergeant Martin!” Brookes said loudly.

  “Yes, ma’am?” Martin said as he went back up to fire.

  “Where’s Hartford?”

  “I have no idea, ma’am,” Martin said as he ducked quickly again. “The Cap is in the bunker there, he probably knows.”

  Martin stood up and went back to firing as did Riley who grabbed his gun and joined Martin on the firing step. Brookes pivoted to her right and went into the front bunker.

  “Less than a thousand shots left, Captain!” Kazir yelled over the noise of his weapon.