The Fable of Marcus

by Sajjad Tameez

  Chapter 9

  Warriors of Beaconsfield

  After a slow and laborious journey, they approached another close by town. At first, it

  looked dead, roads and buildings looked empty, but there were a few faint sounds.

  And as they trotted further in, Arthur noticed a few frightened faces buried deep

  inside buildings, discreetly peering out.

  ‘They must have seen us from far and hidden. It’s no wonder with the army of tin

  cans we bought with us!’ Arthur ordered everyone to stop and looked over a large

  building, ‘people, don’t hide, you have nothing to fear – we are not here to hurt you.’

  His voice echoed but failed to meet with a response. After a few brief moments, there

  were sounds of shuffling and then arguing between a female and a male. Seconds

  later, a young woman, wearing a loose white dress, stormed out, holding a large

  glimmering sword. One she was actually struggling to carry and nearly cut herself

  with when she tried moving her long brunette hair that kept floating in her face.

  ‘Elaina! Come back here!’ A man’s voice whispered loudly. But the young lady kept

  up her pace until she approached Arthur, trying to ignore the fierce looking robots.

  ‘Who are you and what do you want, coming into my town? She huffed, her dazzling

  blue eyes opened wide. Arthur, taken aback by both her incredible beauty and her

  valour, was lost for words, ‘I... we...’ Amy noticing that Arthur may not be able to

  craft even a basic sentence while staring at her, decided to intervene, firstly by

  coughing loudly and then rolling her eyes. ‘Hey princess! We’re not here to hurt you

  – we’re on the same side!’ She spoke aggressively.

  ‘Really? Well how do you explain those things?’ She yelled, still not looking in the

  direction of the robots.

  Arthur regaining his senses, cut back into the conversation, ‘Who is in charge of this

  town?’

  ‘I am! My name is Elaina.’ Arthur was baffled at how a young and fine-looking

  woman was the head of an entire town, but he had no time for stereo-typing.

  ‘Ok gather all your people – we need to talk.’

  The lady although hesitant, knew deep down that if they wanted to harm them than

  they would not be talking.

  After a few moments, the young lady gave the orders and people began pouring out in

  drips. To Arthur’s astonishment, the people flooding in were only women and

  children.

  ‘Where are your men?’ He asked, carefully looking around. But she did not say

  anything, she simply pointed over at the rooftops of the buildings. When Arthur

  looked around he could see rows of strong men with bow and arrows, sticks, swords,

  large rocks and some even had more advance weaponry – guns. Arthur smiled as he

  gazed around, I like these guys already!

  ‘Please come down – we are not here to fight with you.’ Arthur admired there

  strategic plan.

  When everyone finally gathered, a tall and well-built man approached Arthur. His

  shoulder-length black hair bounced gentle waves as he walked and the lean strands

  muscles exposed from the white vest, flared as he clenched tightly to a remarkable

  sword.

  ‘Who are you?’ The man asked in a husky voice. Arthur marvelling at the fact that

  none of them backed down, even considering the circumstances.

  ‘I am Arthur...’ and before Arthur could say anything else, the man lowered his sword

  and his sparkling hazel eyes opened wide.

  ‘You are Arthur... the Arthur?’ The man said, looking at him up and down. Arthur

  nodded his head slowly and began imagining all the deluded stories he may have

  heard about him. Maybe in this town he was a dragon slayer, a giant, or maybe he

  could breathe fire or even fly... The list went on.

  ‘I thought you would be...’ the man paused.

  ‘What? A giant? Made out of metal?’ Arthur smiled.

  ‘I was going to say taller,’ the man smiled back and rose out his hand and shook

  Arthurs hand firmly.

  ‘But what the...’ the man looked over at the robots baffled, ‘how could this be...’

  Arthur turned to the Marcus who had climbed off DK and was stretching from a stiff

  body. The man looked at Marcus in complete amazement, his eyes stretched as wide

  as they could and his jaw dropped. ‘It can’t be...’

  Arthur nodded at Marcus who raised the over-sized sleeve of his tattered black top

  that Ryan gave him. All the people of the new town paused and stared in disbelief,

  some grinned in excitement but most remained frozen stiff.

  ‘I can’t believe it... so it is true... the boy really exists! All these years!’ The man

  raised his sword and turned to the people in his town and roared, ‘now we fight!’ and

  there was a loud cheer from the crowd, even the children cheered, although not all of

  them knowing exactly why.

  ‘My name is Khan. Welcome to Beaconsfield, and this is my daughter,’ he pulled

  Elaina from behind him, ‘you are going to have to excuse her anger.’

  ‘No... I think it’s great!’ Arthur said and then took a minute to think about how that

  would have sounded.

  ‘You all look cold and hungry, come inside... please.’ Khan insisted.

  The town, like every other in England was dark and gloomy, and somehow resembled

  the dark ages, although, they all knew the irony was that man innovated to bring

  himself out of the dark ages and just to lead himself into much darker ages.

  The building they entered was much bigger in contrast to Wycombe’s place of

  gathering and appeared well maintained. Although there were signings of rust and

  paint chipping-away, the door and window frames were in pretty good nick. The

  building stood completely straight, the glass was still in the windows and even the

  roof tiles were up to a reasonable standard. On entering the building, the ground and

  the ceiling could not be further apart; the floor was wooden and polished. Similar to

  the hall that they gathered in Wycombe, it had an area at the front with a chair,

  presumably were the leader sat.

  ‘Through here...’ Khan said, pointing to a large door to the side. This led to another

  room almost identical to the first, except this had long, dark-brown, wooden tables

  with thinner planks running along both sides of each table, like garden benches.

  Khan insisted they all sit and organised a plan to get food served.

  ‘Have you noticed that it is warm in here?’ Nicole whispered into Marcus’s ear.

  ‘Yeah... and I don’t see any fire... they must have some other type of heating. Khan,

  who happened to have outstanding hearing, was unintentionally eavesdropping.

  ‘We have solar panels on all of our roof-tops... they provide us with enough power for

  the heating and lighting.’

  ‘That’s great... it feels lovely in here!’ Nicole smiled.

  They all sat enjoying the food and the warmth; all the while, the children from this

  town were climbing onto the robots and swinging off their arms like they were

  branches on a tree. The robots remained on alert, but stood still like huge iron statues

  surrounding the building.

  Back inside, everyone was full to the brim. They were all so hungry that they ate

  much more than what their bodies were used to and definitely more than what they
/>   needed. Thomas had to loosen the top button of his trousers just in order to breathe.

  But before they had a moment to digest anything, the ground began to tremble and the

  children from outside came rushing in screaming. They were so frantic that they were

  unable to explain what they just saw outside. Everyone rushed out and to their utter

  amazement they saw something unbelievable – an entire Army of robots, almost twice

  the size they already had come barging into the town and stood next to the others and

  faced Marcus. But before they had time to think, the same metal ball-like eyes flew

  over the sky and it was now obvious that, even with this great army, they were in

  danger.

  ‘They have seen everything, haven’t they?’ Marcus asked XJ2.

  ‘Affirmative, the control centre has observed us and is formulating an attack strategy.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘That is what I would do.’

  Marcus quickly climbed onto XJ2 and stood tall on his arm.

  ‘Everyone! listen up! We don’t have much time, they know of me and of this army.

  We are not safe, they will be planning for war... and we will not sit here and wait for

  them. We are going to war... we are going to the towers and we will fight to the end!

  Come with us... please, we will need all the help we can get. Instantly, Khan and his

  daughter stepped forward with the swords raised. And there was a great cheer from

  the huge crowd of people. Marcus looked around at everyone and could not believe

  that he, a boy that did not even know what he is doing here or how even got here, was

  leading such a great army on a quest that he didn’t fully understand. He was terrified

  and felt like telling Arthur that he couldn’t do it and that Arthur should lead, but he

  knew there must be a reason that this was all happening, or at least that’s what he kept

  telling himself. As he climbed down, he was met by Nicole’s almost mocking

  expression. ‘Well aren’t we just the talky ones now. You went from shy to fly.’ She

  smiled, immediately cheering Marcus up and calming his nerves. Marcus was still

  finding it hard to get used all the different eyes that stared at him, as if he were a

  special artefact in a museum – a feeling he didn’t think he could ever get used.

  ‘When shall we leave?’ Arthur asked Marcus. Marcus moved closer to Arthur and

  whispered, ‘when do you think?’ Arthur smiled and remembered that he was still

  only a young boy.

  ‘We will gather what we need and rest for no longer than an hour. And then we head

  towards London.’ Arthur addressed the crowds of people.

  ‘London?’ Elaina asked.

  ‘At last, we’ll find out if the rumours are true! London is said to have many people

  and even a great little army.’ Arthur then turned to Khan and said, ‘I don’t suppose

  you have any horses or any other form of transport? I don’t know if the robots will be

  able to carry everyone.’

  ‘We have limited horses but they will carry the strong men. Your women and children

  can remain here with ours and we can leave some guards for them.’

  Marcus butted in saying, ‘I will instruct a few of the robots to stay... you’re right we

  can’t drag them all into this.’

  ‘Ok. It’s a shame, we have many vehicles, some small and some large. They could

  carry many people but we have never needed them before nor did we have any fuel

  for them.’ Khan said, pointing further down the long road.

  ‘I have an idea...’ Marcus said, rushing into one of the buildings.

  ‘What is it?’ Arthur and khan said as they followed him up the spirally stairs of the

  building. This being the tallest building in the town, allowed him to see all the roof

  tops. Marcus’s eyes sparkled, ‘every roof has solar panels...’

  ‘Yes... go on...’ Arthur said – not being fond of the suspense.

  ‘We will use the panels to power the vehicles!’

  ‘But... how? We did think of this once before but the cars have all got computer

  systems that are probably linked to the Empire’s control centre! Churchill, fought

  with us and felt that he could do it, but he was stopped by the previous leader of the

  town. He is good at circuitry and pretty much made the entire solar power system

  work perfectly throughout the town.’

  ‘Where is he?’ Marcus asked.

  ‘He lives in his workshop two roads from here.’

  ‘We should go and see him.’

  ‘Ok but I must warn you... he is completely mad and does not like guests!’

  ‘We’ll take our chances!’ Arthur said as they hurried back down the stairs.

  A couple of narrow side alleys and a few trips into the large pot holes later, they

  approached the shabby workshop. It was dark and had a long brown sign running

  across it, but the paint was so worn that it was impossible to read what is said. It was

  two storeys and had a few boarded up windows. There were absolutely no lights or

  sounds coming from anywhere.

  ‘Is he asleep?’ Marcus asked looking at the front door, which was a long semi-circle

  rather than the usual rectangle and looked like a ghostly mouth opened wide.

  ‘Churchill!’ Khan shouted.

  ‘He’s not in! Now go away!’ A loud and irritated voice spoke back from within the

  building.

  ‘Come on Churchill... we need your help... there are some people that want to speak

  to you.’

  ‘O, now you need my help! Now!’

  ‘Churchill, please open the door.’ Khan asked nicely, but both Khan and Arthur had

  the urge to kick the door down and barge in.

  ‘No! Go away!’

  ‘Maybe I should try!’ Arthur asked.

  ‘I don’t think that’ll be necessary,’ Marcus stepped closer to the door, ‘uh...

  Churchill... my name is Marcus, I am not from around here and I could really do with

  your help. I need your help with the wiring the solar panels to power the vehicles in

  this town!’ There was a long silence, ‘Churchill...’ and just when they had given up

  hope, there were loud clunking sounds, rusty metal squeaking and several locks

  opening. The wooden door’s rusty hinges screamed as it crept open and short plumplooking

  man with long fluffy white hair emerged. Strangely, he had his stripped

  jumper tucked into his brown trousers, which were lifted way above belly-button

  level. And it was hard to distinguish whether he was receding or just had an

  exceptionally large forehead; either way, it suited his round face and thin white beard

  quite well.

  ‘What do you know about the vehicles?’ Churchill said, peering over his thin-framed

  spectacles, and using the question as almost a type of initiation.

  ‘I know that if you configure the software in the vehicles computer then you can

  disable the Wi-Fi chip!’ Marcus said with a smile.

  ‘Astounding!’ He replied and his rosy cheeks bloomed brighter. ‘Well please come

  in!’ They all stepped inside and gazing around, their attention could not focus on one

  thing; the entire room was filled with bits and bobs. Tables were scattered with metal

  objects, old batteries, and circuit boards – the walls infested with bits of paper, even

  the floor was cluttered with junk.

  ‘Welcome to my workshop...’ Churchill said, both nervous and excited.

  ‘Jun
k-yard more like...’ Khan muttered under his breath.

  ‘I heard that...’

  ‘Sorry, what?’ Khan pretending he didn’t say anything.

  ‘I’ll get the tea on shall I...’ Churchill growled, cutting Khan a seriously evil look.

  ‘No... we don’t have the time. Thank you.’ Arthur said, hoping that Marcus would

  direct the conversation from there. But Marcus had become distracted – he strolled to

  the back of the wall and stared contently at strange numbers, letters, symbols and

  small diagrams, in like a brainstorm, splattered all across the back wall. He somehow

  recognised the formula, knew what it meant and knew that it was slightly inaccurate.

  Churchill noticing Marcus’s interest, stood shoulder to shoulder with him and they

  both got lost in the diagram. After a few brief moments, Marcus picked a pen up from

  the close by table, and scribbled a few numbers and letters at the end and then went

  back and crossed some symbols and numbers and wrote out new ones. He smiled,

  pleased with himself and walked back to join the others who didn’t have the foggiest

  of what he had just done.

  Churchill concentrated for a few moments, all the while, mumbling to himself, ‘but

  how can... oh...oh my, but what about, oh yes... yes, of course! He yelled at the end.

  He turned to Marcus with eyes gleaming, ‘who... are... you?’ He asked slowly –

  baffled at how a young boy, could have solved something that had taken him years.

  They sat and spoke for a sort while and Marcus explained who he was and what he

  was about to do.

  ‘Outstanding!’ He said, gazing at the wall.

  ‘Will you help?’

  ‘What do you need me to do?’ Churchill stood up in excitement.

  ‘Let’s get to the vehicles, we don’t have much time!’ Arthur stood up and they all

  stormed out.

  ‘When we get back to the hall, Marcus, go with Churchill and do your thing, we will

  prepare for the journey.’

  Back at the hall, Nicole, Louise, Tommy, Mary and Ryan were getting ready to go

  with the army, when Amy approached them, ‘what are you guys doing?’

  ‘We’re getting ready.’ Louise said.

  ‘I don’t think so... you guys are staying... it’s too dangerous!’

  ‘But...’ Nicole moaned.

  ‘No buts! It’s too dangerous.’ And they knew she wouldn’t budge and that Arthur

  would back it up. When Amy left, Nicole smiled, ‘we are going... o, we are definitely

  going!’

  ‘But you heard what Amy just said, there’s no chance!’ Mary said, sounding a little

  relieved that they weren’t going.

  ‘Mary... in fact, all you guys – you should stay. I... I have to go. It’s just something I

  need to do!’

  ‘You’re not going anywhere without me!’ Louise said, with her head tilted and hands

  on her hips.

  ‘Yeah count me in!’ Ryan smiled, excitedly.

  ‘Ok, Mary and Thomas you guys stay here, we’ll come back to get you when this is

  all over.’ Nicole said optimistically. And Both Mary and Thomas didn’t need to be

  asked twice and agreed to stay.

  Arthur and Marcus rushed back and XJ2 and another robot were assigned to escort

  Marcus and Churchill to the showroom of vehicles. Before they left, Marcus

  approached Nicole and the others, ‘hey,’ Marcus smiled.

  ‘Hey, you ok?’ Nicole asked.

  ‘Yeah, think so...’

  ‘How about you guys?’

  ‘We’re great!’

  ‘Amy said no, didn’t she?’

  Nicole nodded.

  ‘But that’s not gonna stop you is it?’

  Nicole shook her head and grinned. Marcus smiled, ‘I’ll be back soon, make sure you

  are ready, I’ll figure out how to get you hitchhikers a ride!’

  But before he walked away, he peered back, ‘Mary... Thomas?’

  ‘No, they’re not coming!’ Nicole said quickly.

  ‘Ok, good idea. No offence.’ He said looking at Mary and Thomas’s faces.

  ‘None taken!’ Mary said joyfully.

  ‘Ok, great!’ He said and he rushed off.

  Churchill, from a quiet and a unsocial little man, turned into a monster – he was

  ranting and raving, ordering people to get a few of the solar panels off the rooftops,

  but still ended up rushing around with them because he couldn’t trust them to take

  them off without breaking them. And did not decelerate for a moment, fuelled by

  excitement and the strong feeling of finally having a purpose, he persisted in shouting

  and ordering people; he even got people to carry his heavy suitcase around with him

  everywhere he went, not trusting it out of his sight. He had around twenty young men

  running around, while he, Marcus and a few men, carrying his equipment, rushed to

  the vehicle showroom.

  On entering the web-infested showroom, Marcus was amazed to the see the amount of

  vehicles that there were parked perfectly in huge room. Most of which, aside from

  having a coat of thick dust, were in immaculate condition. And the range varied from

  huge buses, SUV’s to high performance sports cars. Churchill noticed Marcus’s eyes

  glued on the range of Italian sports vehicles and stood in front of his sight, ‘they may

  be a little inappropriate...’ Churchill, lifting an eyebrow.

  ‘Yeah... of course...’ Marcus, thinking practical again, ‘the solar panels won’t power

  the buses, will they?’

  ‘Probably not... I think it’ll be better to focus on the SUV’s.’

  ‘Ok.’ Marcus opened the driver side door and climbed into a black, seven seated, car

  and Churchill climbed into the passenger side. The men carrying the heavy equipment

  and solar panels from the roofs put everything down and looked exhausted.

  Marcus wiped the dash so he could see the dials in the car and then began wondering,

  where do I start?

  ‘Pull the leaver near the pedals and open the bonnet!’ Churchill pointed. Marcus

  found and pulled the leaver, releasing the hinge on the hood. As they got around the

  front of the car and Churchill asked one of the men to raise the hood, Marcus stared at

  the engine and the small black battery in the corner.

  ‘No... this isn’t right...’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Churchill asked, studying the mechanics.

  ‘This will take us days to do... we have to re-design the entire operation of the car!’

  ‘But... we can do it... I know we can!’

  ‘We don’t have the time and besides, these cars were around in late nineties, early

  twenties!’

  ‘Ok... what’s your point?’

  ‘This is a museum, not a showroom. Come on...’ Marcus began rushing further down

  the huge room until he approached a large double door that was locked with a keypad

  lock.

  ‘There’s no power in this building so we won’t even be able to attempt the code!’

  Marcus said. The men moved Marcus and Churchill to the side, ‘allow us to try!’

  They began kicking and barging the door until it gave way and collapsed.

  As they stepped inside the room, they caught sight of an entirely different planet. The

  vehicles were worlds apart from what they just saw. They were much curvier and the

  elegantly shaped bodies camouflaged more than half the tyres like a skirt covering

  most of a person’s legs. Some of the vehicles headlight’s were small and triang
ular

  and some thin and rectangle but the tail lights were all small round circles and only

  varied in the number of lights on each model of vehicle.

  Marcus, realising that they don’t really have the time to stand and marvel, rushed to

  the largest he could find – it was a gleaming black and the rectangular lights stared at

  them like an angry ogre.

  ‘Now, that’s more like it!’ Marcus opened the door, which flung up like the doors of a

  Lamborghini. He got in and opened the stretched hood. The entire engine looked like

  a huge battery.

  ‘Churchill... this entire engine is electric powered.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I don’t know how, but I do. Can you juice it up?’

  ‘I can certainly try!’ Churchill smiled briefly then turned to the man who was carrying

  his suitcase of tools, ‘come on man, bring me my stuff, we don’t have all day!’ The

  man, rolling his eyes, lifted his heavy suitcase and dropped it right next to his foot.

  ‘Careful!’

  ‘Whoops!’ The man said sarcastically.

  ‘I need the panels... they have a storage battery and providing these, brutes got the

  right ones, I should be able to make the connections!’ The men took no notice,

  especially as Churchill went with them and chose the panels himself. Marcus stayed

  inside looking at the controls while Churchill worked his skills on the engine.

  The men stood guard and tried to ignore Churchill talking and arguing with himself.

  ‘This is absolutely remarkable!’ Churchill poked his head into the vehicle, making

  Marcus jump.

  ‘What is?’

  ‘The power required to get this vehicle going is extraordinary... well let me show

  you.’ Marcus followed him out to the front of the car. ‘Take a look at the battery cell

  from the engine and compare it to the one in the panel. This battery from the solar

  panel, according to this, should be able to power this vehicle for days, maybe even

  weeks. It’s truly amazing!’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Well what?’ Churchill asked with his eyes sparkling.

  ‘Well... shall we crank this baby up?’

  ‘What? Yes, of course!’ Churchill made the connection and looked at Marcus, ‘well?’

  ‘Let’s have a look inside...’ They climbed in anxiously and sat in silent, not knowing

  exactly what they were expecting, but expecting something. Churchill sighed in

  disappointment, a sigh he had well rehearsed from many disappointing experiments.

  Marcus, on the other end of the spectrum, was not disappointed at all, ‘even if it is

  powered, it’s not just going to start up, we need a key for the ignition!’ But they

  couldn’t find an ignition, ‘look for a key hole, a card slot or something...’

  But then it hit Marcus, they must have got past key and card methods by the time they

  made these, ‘Engine start!’ Marcus said as clearly as he could. But everything

  remained silent, ‘it was worth a try, I guess.’ But a red led light on the dash began to

  blink and then lots of little lights began to blink and car started to make a faint and

  prolonged buzzing noise like a milk float.

  The men standing outside were a little startled with the sound, and deep down didn’t

  really think they would get it going.

  ‘So what now? How do we drive this thing?’ Churchill asked concentrating on the

  controls.

  ‘I’m not quite sure... but let me have a look at this...’

  Churchill sat completely still and amazed as Marcus whizzed through the vehicle’s

  computer. ‘According to this, we can drive this thing manually... or... we could...’

  Marcus turned and faced Churchill what’s the name of the road the large hall, we just

  came from, on?’

  ‘Umm... it’s the... yes... it’s the high street!’

  ‘Ok, we should be able to use the computer’s navigation system and there is autodrive

  that should get us there.’

  ‘Amazing!’

  ‘Ok, it’s right here...’ Marcus took a deep breath, ‘drive to the high street.’ The

  vehicle rose a little higher, with a light hissing sound. There were a few crackling

  sounds as the vehicle struggled to move forward. ‘It’s stiff from being parked in one

  place for so many years... but it’ll be ok.’ Or at least he hoped it would, ‘engine stop!’

  The car stopped and the buzzing noise decreased.

  ‘Let’s crank a few more of these up!’ Marcus said, excitedly.

  The Dark-Tec Towers

  Fredrick came running and banged on the door.

  ‘Come in Fredrick!’ Fredrick barged in huffing and puffing.

  ‘Master... master...’

  ‘Get on with it Fredrick! Have you found the boy? And where on earth have Hex and

  his creeps got to?’

  ‘Master... the boy, we’ve found the boy!’ Fredrick showed him the footage of Marcus

  and the robots gathered in Beaconsfield.

  ‘Well this is interesting – how is he doing that? Get word to Hex and give him the

  boy’s location!’

  ‘That’s the thing... Hex and his team are missing.’

  ‘What!’ He shouted so loud Fredrick stumbled back and covered his face with his

  arms. ‘I don’t know what I expected... if you want something to actually get done, you

  have to do it yourself! Maxwell!’ he shouted, and after a few seconds Maxwell

  appeared.

  ‘Maxwell! The system?’

  ‘We have too many bugs and it’s not ready!’

  ‘Maxwell, you’re really pushing me now!’ he frowned, ‘prepare the army and get my

  transport ready.’

  ‘But that would not be advisable... even with the system online, not all the bridges

  have been made, some areas are completely dead. It would be dangerous – you could

  die.’

  ‘I know the risks, just do it. The boy is close!’

  ‘He has got control of the old robots and we can’t override them – even the system

  going online will not guarantee anything!’

  ‘I will not back down from this boy! I want everything we have prepared for battle!’

  ‘I think you are overreacting. It will not be necessary for such move.’

  ‘Really... so, you think now! Why don’t you tell me how the boy is taking control of

  the ground army?’ Maxwell remained silent.

  ‘Exactly! Prepare for battle now!’

  ‘Right away.’ Maxwell disappeared.

  ‘Well done Fredrick! You’ve really made me proud and as your reward you will join

  me to battle.’ Fredrick was petrified of fighting and hated the thought of tagging

  along, but hid his feelings behind a nervous smile and a nod.

  Inside the towers, every light was turned on, every door was open and the huge fleet

  of robots in the basement activated and briefed. The towers, from a deadly silence,

  began screaming with ground trembling and terrifying sounds. There were loud hisses

  as gas released, screeching metal and pounding thuds on the ground. Every robot, big

  or small, fighter or non-fighter, ready or not, was configured for battle.