So Far

Them Bones Part 1

"Okay everybody gather around." began Max.  "We have a new mission.  There are twenty squads of Skelebots marching on a town called Kelso.  That's 200 Skelebots.  We are to be part of a larger force moving to prevent those shocking machines from ever reaching the town.  Kelso is an important military target for us but so far is low on the Coalition's priority list, hence the mindless drones.  

"There is to be one human commanding officer for every five squads.  We will take out these C.O.'s with an aerial strike then follow up by decimating the bots.

"Once we get to the battle line we will be exactly four hours ahead of the Coalition.  We will recon the area and make our final plans then.  Any questions?"

Max assessed the situation to himself.  The area was lightly wooded with one open road coming into the town.  The snow was fairly light and posed no slow down to any troops on foot.  Some of the squads would come down the road but most would take to the woods to either side.  The day was grey and heavily overcast but the warlocks of Tolkeen predicted that there would not be any snowfall.  The air was too cold and the temperature steadily dropping as the sun fell from the sky.  By time night rolled around the temp with wind chill would be minus 25 F.  Not the coldest night but cold enough.

Rad returned from his last sweep of the area. "Drek it's colder than a witchling's tit out here. I think my heater is malfunctioning."

"Stop whining Rad, R.C. checked it twice already and it's fine."

"Where is he now Max?"

"He's doing the last system check on my Ulti-max.  Leave him alone about that stupid heater."

"Alright alright."

"You weren't this whiny when we hit the German camp.  It was a lot lot colder that night.

"I dunno.  I must be coming down with something."

"What?  The mighty Juicer susceptible to the common cold."

"No, I actually think it's my heart.  Those fragging machine men killed Al."

"Yeah I know.  That's why we're here.  Nim wouldn't send us on a simple mission like this just for the Dyval of it.  I told him that we deserved at least to whet our thirst for revenge on those soulless things.  I don't want to chase them around the entire length of the war but I don't mind taking some time to give them one tremendous repair bill."

"I hope you told R.C. you wanted to see some results."

"Yeah I told him I want no less than ten heads to make up for him getting Jon killed.  Then I'll forget the whole thing and no one will bother him about it again.  I also told Archer to try and keep his distance this time.  Before Al was killed after we settled back down he told me about the Glitterboy wrestling with one of those new demonic type Skelebots."

"Crazy newbies."

"Yeah well I think you best reserve that judgement until you see how they handle this one."

"You think your training has sunk in?"

"I sure hope so.  Those two are costing us a fortune.  I would have liked to have kept that APC for us.  But we had to fix it up and sell it to cover our costs.  I hope Nim got a good price on it.  I have a sneaking suspicion though that he gave it to the kingdom for next to nothing."

"Have you ever been to Nim's place in Freehold?  I presume he has a place there, dragon city and all that."

"Yeah he's got a place there but I've never been."

Archer ran his radar at maximum resolution.  The system was in synch with the station in Kelso thanks to a little help from R.C.  No one could distinguish his sweep unless they were literally sitting right on top of him. The night was dark and moonless.  The woods were silent and nothing moved for hours.  Then around four in the morning just when the shift change was about to begin the first moving objects appeared on the edge of Archer's screen.  He radioed to Max who told him to hold his position and await the enemy to come within boomgun range.

The targets moved along at a stealthy pace.  Word came back from the advanced units that the targets were indeed Skelebots.  Their thermal signature was no appreciably different from an armoured soldier until you were almost on top of them then their chest would light up a bright red.  So visual confirmation was the only way.  Not that it mattered to Archer but Max had explained it thoroughly anyway.  

The defender's net was too thin to stop the advance of the squads of deadly machines.  Thunder split the air and lights flashed around, the only signs of the battle.  Archer waited until the first few targets breached his firing range.  Six targets burst into his range.

Archer downed the Skelebots easily.  One of them burst into flames before collapsing.  Another took out its nearest neighbour with a sustained railgun burst after Archer beheaded it.  The last did exactly what Archer was hoping for.  It fired a laser that ricocheted harmlessly off of the Glitterboy's brilliant chrome armour. More Skelebots came into range but with them came a Super Samas.  He battled it trading boomgun shells for plasma mini-missiles.  The other pilot's aim was off terribly perhaps because of the brightly burning Skelebot perhaps because he was just no good.  Archer downed him but the distraction provided four Skelebots time to get into firing range upon the GB.  They fired their lasers that bounced off of the armour.  Soon enough they would have the right frequency to begin harming the suit.

Archer targeted the first one and squeezed the trigger.  The pylons sank into the ground and the thrusters flared sending snow blowing.  The gun boomed, the sound rolling off into the distance.  The closest Skelebot flew backwards through the air a huge hole through its middle.  The other three fired their lasers, three solid squared shots that bounced off harmlessly downing trees in the distance.  Archer fired on the next one and blew its left side off.  The bulk of it tumbled away from him and its legs and arm flew up in the air.

The other two fired their useless lasers again.  Archer turned on the next one. It tried to dodge but Archer put the shot right through its middle.  It exploded into little pieces and a fire ball rose into the dark night.  The remaining Skelebot had moved into close quarters.  It swung its vibro wrist arc at him.  Archer tried to parry but was too slow.  The blade sent a show of sparks up from the Glitterboy's chromed armour.  The gash was long but superficial.  Archer turned his sidearm on it.  The smaller gun chattered and the Skelebot staggered back a few steps.  It fired its laser spanging the beam off of the G.B.'s head.  No damage, and not even distracting.

Archer pointed the boomgun right at its head.  He couldn't miss at point blank range.  He blew its head clean off.  It stood for a moment and then slumped its shoulders and fell to the ground.  A new wave of six had arrived within range their laser beams flying in all directions off of the G.B.'s mirrored surface.  He fired on the nearest one. Actually it was the first one he had driven away.  It burst into little pieces.  More laser fire came in.  One of the shots seared across the armour's surface.  He hadn't seen which one did it. [Failed Read Sensory Equipment roll to put the beam to the correct radar blip.] He fired on the nearest one holing it and sending it crashing back into another.

There was another smaller hail of lasers.  None of them did damage.  Maybe he'd got the one that had determined the right light frequency.  He shot another one and blew it away.  No fireball this time though.  The next volley of lasers came in.  One beam missed entirely and the other two bounced harmlessly.  He gambled on which one had his freq. and fired.  The thunder of the gun rolled and the Skelebot that had fallen when its brother collided with it exploded once and then turned into a bomb of molten metal that flew every which way.  Archer put the shield in front of the G.B. and hunkered down behind it. Flaming metal rained down for a brief moment.  The shield suffered minimal damage.

As he stood up again.  A laser shot burned into him again.  Either another one had it or he'd judged wrong last time.  He fired on the heavily damaged one that was closest.  It tried to dodge out of the way but Archer sent its remains scattering to the four winds.  Now only two Skelebots remained, the other taken out by the explosion.  They fired their lasers both to no effect.  Archer fired on the one to the left and knocked it sprawling.  The other fired its laser to no avail.

Archer fired on it and through some sort of fluke missed it entirely.  It fired again and burned into his armour.  Taking aim Archer fired again and blew it into little pieces.  Now only the one regaining it's feet remained.  Archer turned to fire on it.  The thrusters whined to life and the blast echoed off into the distance.  The Skelebot side-stepped the blast and ran towards the Glitterboy.  Archer fired again and the robot got out of the way again.  Archer fired a third shot at the rapidly approaching robot.

The Skelebot leaned into the blast as the flechettes lanced through its power core and began a nuclear flash point.  The blast flew forward straight at Archer even as the remaining pieces of the Skelebot went the other direction.  Archer flipped the pylons and thrusters off even as he pivoted to the right and fired the boomgun.  The G.B. rocketed backwards as the shell flew from the mouth of the boomgun.  The blast from the Skelebot's core flashed by right where he had been.