So Far

Them Bones Part 2

R.C. sat in a tree waiting for the Skelebots to come.  He ran his radar in synch with the station in Kelso exactly as he had set the Glitterboy to do.  The Skelebots couldn't run their own radar or they would announce their arrival.  They had to wait for visual range before they could commence their attack.  There were Tolkeenites scattered throughout the woods waiting for the bastard machines to arrive.

It was cold, dark and silent.  A bad combination for a long wait.  The wind barely stirred and nothing moved.  The shift was about to change when Max radioed that the Skelebots were moving into range.  R.C. could see them on his radar.  Suddenly blips moved between the blips of the trees.  Word came that they were Skelebots and everyone waited for them to come into missile range.

It was a long wait as the Skelebots crept through the woods.  The radar picked them up long before anyone could accurately fire a shot.  Max had told R.C. to let the bots come to him instead of him going after them, at least in the beginning.  So he readied himself for battle and he waited, knowing there would be lots of time tonight to kill as many of the machine-men as he had ammo.

R.C. spotted his first opportunity.  He leapt down from the tree and started running for a cluster of six Skelebots.  He dodged and weaved around the sparse trees.  He had chosen a more open area.  As he neared them he kicked in the Flying Titan's rockets and leapt over them shouting "Die you technological PERVERSIONS" on all radio channels as he loosed a volley of four mini-missiles into their midst.  The missiles struck the ground and exploded spraying hot plasma all over the robots.  They were flung away and one didn't look like it would be getting back up again.

R.C. came to a stop in mid-air and turned around.  He targeted two where they lay together in a heap and loosed two more missiles at them.  They disappeared in a fireball that lit up the night.  One off to the right had gained its feet.  R.C. fired his railgun that he had liberated from a Skelebot at Bessford.  The gun chattered and the rounds pounded into its plasma-damaged chest and it pitched over backwards and lay still.  R.C. giggled maniacally.

R.C. faded back away from them and circled around to the west.  He moved back into range and fired a railgun burst at the back of one of them.  It flew apart into little pieces.  R.C. faded back and circled east as the robots turned to where he'd been and began to shoot up the trees and the ground.  He was completely behind them this time.  He ran almost right up to them and leapt over them.  As he did he dropped a TK field around three of them and dropped a fusion block.  The block bounced once came up to the edge of the forcefield and exploded.  The Skelebots were totally incinerated.  "Yee haw!"

The remaining one turned and fired upon the forcefield.  R.C. faded back and to the west as it continued to assault the psychic barrier.  Just as the Skelebot moved in to try its vibroes on the shield R.C. fired another two mini-missiles.  They found their mark and pasted the Skelebot on the forcefield and then the field collapsed.  R.C. dropped to the ground crying so hard from laughing.  He doubled over.  Something knocked him flying with kick in the ass.

Getting to his feet he turned to his attacker.  It was one of those demonic Skelebots.  It swayed and weaved on its tri-jointed legs.  The eyes of the skull on its chest glowed crimson and the ones in its head were bright yellow.  R.C. leapt at it.  He bowled right into it and began pummelling it.  It grabbed him by the Hopper's helmet and then it stopped suddenly.  A voice startled R.C. and he brayed nervous laughter in lieu of a scream.  "R.C. calm down man."

It was Rad.  R.C. got to his feet.  The Hellion lay were it was unmoving.  "Rad.  This is your lucky day.  You get to stay here and watch my body."

"Max told me to keep an eye on you but I don't think that is what he meant."

"Trust me, if he knew what I had in mind he would have.  Watch!"

R.C. lay down on the ground next to the Hellion and reached out and touched it with his hand.  The Hellion jittered and started spewing nonsensical noise as R.C. began mucking up its programming.  He couldn't have it trying to interfere with him.  Then it fell silent and slowly turned its head towards Rad.  "Hey man.  I'm going to go teach some of these botsies a lesson."

"R.C.?"

"You betcha!" said the Hellion as it turned around and ran into away into the night.

R.C. came upon a pair of Skelebots.  He walked right up to them and grabbed one by the neck and laughing and snorting beat the other one with it until both stopped moving.  He moved on a caught another one on its lonesome.  He grabbed its weapon and pulled it away taking the forearm with it.  It stood there facing him and there was a transmission from it.  R.C. ran it through a filter and got an error message, no a query.  He looked at it again.  Yeah the Skelebot was looking for orders unsure as to why its weapon had been removed and its arm damage.  R.C. cackled and told it, "You're orders are to return to Chi-town."

He followed the vocal statement with what looked like the right command.  The Skelebot turned around and began to walk away obeying the order.

The cold dark night stretched on forever.  G'lishi thought for sure that the sheer and utter boredom would freeze him into a permanent statue long before the cold ever got to him.  (An interesting thought, that.  How long would it take him to freeze solid?  Of course, he'd have to die first but still.  Oh, right, serious mission;  watch for lights.  Won't see anything else first.   Silly thing, that.  Why would you make perfectly good robots for killing things, and then make them so visible by lighting them up.  Might as well have them play circus music too.  Circus, that was fun!  Too bad he was young and couldn't stay small for more than a few hours.  There was so much to see.  Some of it was just silly, humans have weird ideas, but the acrobats were good, for creatures without magic or wings or anything that is.  Still, you can admire cripples for what they're still able to produce.  Like those robots he's supposed to be watching for...  What did Max say they looked like again?)

Max said that they were robot skeletons.  Human shaped but really skinny.  Max had explained how that once the battle was started the Skelebots would see him before he saw them.  That was a part of the plan.  However he could get some completely by surprise before then either by flying overhead of them or teleporting right behind them or if he was lucky in between a clump of them.

Rad radioed him, "G'lishi, they are finally coming into range.

Get ready.  They should be at your position in twenty minutes.  I will call again when it is time for you to attack."

It was an interminable length of time in the dark void of the night.  The snow sat idle on the ground unmoved by even the lightest puff of wind.  The sky overhead was pitch black, the forest was pitch black.  The snow lent an eerie cast to the air through the dragon's night-sight capable eyes.  Far away but within his sight range a pair of yellow pinprick lights appeared followed by another pair and yet a third.

G'lishi lifted into the air and watched carefully for them to open fire on him.  They didn't.  He circled around behind them and then waited until they hit a small clearing.  He swept down and dropped into their midst snapping one up in his jaws and sending the other two sprawling. The robot in his mouth squirmed and struggled.  It's arms were partially outside of his mouth, but not far enough to be useful.  G'lishi began to chew on it.  It fired its weapon wildly into the air as its two friends got to their feet.

They turned and G'lishi swept them to the ground again with his tail.  He worked on the one in his mouth.  It was hard and bland tasting.  The wriggling was sort of exciting in a childlike way.  It's feet lashed back and forth but it was not dextrous enough to hit the bottom of G'lishi's jaw behind its hips.  One of the Skelebots gained its feet again.  He waited for it to turn to him before stepping forward.  The robot raised its gun to bear but dropped it to try and catch G'lishi's descending foot.  It raised its hands and caught the dragon's foot.  G'lishi leaned forward and put as much of his weight on it as he could.  The robot's arms strained making a small whining sound and for a moment it looked like the robot would not be beaten then the ground beneath is gave a mighty crack and the robot sank up to its head.

The other one meanwhile turned its gun on G'lishi and fired its laser.  The beam seared across his neck, a hot almost miss.  He turned to stomp it.  The Skelebot side-stepped the foot like it knew it was coming and G'lishi made to sweep it off its feet with his tail.  The Skelebot crashed over backward and G'lishi pounced on it pinning it underneath of him.  He didn't stay that way for long.  The trapped Skelebot turned on its vibro wrist arcs.  Max had warned to watch out for those in just a case as this.

G'lishi got a rake across the underbelly for his trouble as he jumped up.  Then he was on the Skelebot again pounding it into the ground.  He got off of it entirely and got another deep scratch.  He gave it a taste of is own medicine and ripped open the light skull pattern on its chest.  It staggered back from the blow and G'lishi raked it again.  

It was hard to concentrate on chewing while fighting but he tried anyway. There was a crunch and a spanging sound.  He was getting somewhere at least.  The other Skelebot moved to fire and got G'lishi in the right eye before its gun went flying.  He was blind on that side now.  The Skelebot moved in to use its vibroes and G'lishi stepped on it driving it into the ground all of the way.

Carefully he removed the one from his mouth and holding it by the upper arms he put just its head in his mouth and chewed through its neck.  G'lishi's eye hurt and he squinted into the darkness with his good one looking to see if he was alone.  There didn't seem to be any more Skelebots around.  He could hear the sounds of battle around him but nothing was in sight.  He waited.  He could feel the burn on his neck healing and the scratches beginning to close.  He kept careful watch with his good eye while his wounds healed.  Then he waited for the stinging in his eye to stop.  Slowly it did and he opened it.  Everything was blurry and it was a long moment before everything looked normal again.

Now he was ready to pull the other robots' heads off.

There was the barest of glows along the eastern horizon.  The battle had raged on for over three hours.  There was a lot of ground to cover and many Skelebots had marched on almost oblivious to the battles taking place around them.  They had to be chased and hunted down.  Some people also took longer to take the robots down.

Max gathered everybody around.  "Good work people.  We've decimated the entire bunch of Skelebots, Hellions, and Super Samas.  I see R.C. has a good pile of heads and other parts.  We're proud of you boy.  <Chris claps politely and Rad biffs R.C.'s shoulder playfully.> Your debt to poor Jon is paid."

Max lowered his head and put his hand over his heart. Without moving from that position he continued, "I broke enough of Seky's toys to feel that Al can rest a little easier now.  <He pauses for a long while and then lowers his hand and raises his head.>  Kelso has asked us to come in and join them for a big breakfast.  After that we're going to move off.  I want to go further north.  Tolkeen's defences there are a little lacking compared to in the south."

Chris went over to the pile of Skelebot skulls and pulled out the slagged one with the nubs of horns on its crown.  He looked at it and R.C. looked at it and said sullenly, "Super Samas came and did me in."