Robot Wars: Thrown Into the Fray

by Nicholas Haring

  “Captain Fischer?” Rayne said, getting Fischer’s attention. “What happened to the bus your squad took to the front? Was it destroyed?”

  “No, I believe one of the Reservists - a Corporal Paul Thompson - stole it. He was assigned to my squad and I’m almost positive he drove off with it before we had a chance to retreat, but thankfully Private Jones was able to reactivate the Mark Four we captured, buying us enough time to get out of there before we were cut-off,” Fischer said.

  “He stole it? I wasn’t aware of this. Did you not file a report with the military police?” Rayne asked.

  “No sir, I had other things to worry about at the time, and the MPs were too busy trying to handle the chaos of the retreat to look for one bus and a deserter in all of that mess. I still have no idea where Thompson or the bus went; I haven’t seen either since,” Fischer said.

  “I see. Well, at least your squad made it back in one piece. I’ll go ahead and forward a report to the MPs, tell them to keep a look out for Corporal Paul Thompson, hopefully they’ll pick him up soon. Those Reservists should’ve never been assigned to us, they seemed to be more trouble than what they were worth,” Rayne scoffed.

  “Most of them did fight well and gave their lives, but I agree, next time I think we should be able to pick and choose from those units, sir,” Fischer said as Rhodes and Harlan nodded.

  “Hmm… I’ll talk to Snow about it, but I think we should move to just expanding our squads,” Rayne said.

  Rayne then went on describing the retreat in full detail to Fischer and the others, and he gave an excuse of why they weren’t provided with any air cover when they needed it the most. It seems that General Williams held them back during the comms blackout, but that didn’t make much sense to Fischer. He knew the Diamond Aces had never had any problems flying without comms before.

  “What was General Williams doing during the comms blackout, sir?” Harlan asked. “When I met with the local commanders at the courthouse they were confused, disorganized, and had no idea what to do next -- all except for the mortar brigade commander, sir.”

  “From what I understand, General Williams was organizing forces that he could directly contact as best he could. He assured me he sent out messengers, but as to what happened to them - I have no idea. What happened here was a huge cluster-fuck, Lieutenant Harlan, so I’m sure the UMI will be pouring over all of these IARs for months to come before we fully understand what happened here,” Rayne explained, though his explanation didn’t seem to satisfy any of them, not even Rayne himself.

  “So, we’re never going to know the reason for the huge fuck-up that got two of my soldiers and most of the reservists under our commands killed?” Harlan said with a frustrated tone.

  “Heh… UMI telling us anything we need to know? You should know better than that, Harlan,” Rhodes said srcastically.

  “Well, they’re called Unified Military Intelligence; I’m sorry for assuming they would actually do their damn jobs,” Harlan said scornfully.

  Rayne moved the map north of town and then drew a red line north of the river.

  “What’s the line for?” Hazzard asked.

  “I was just about to get to that,” Rayne said as the red line turned grey. “Even though the robots have been pushed out of Grantsburg, High Command has seen fit to abandon everything south of the river; they’re going to construct a new defensive line just immediately north of it.”

  “Sir, the 278th and my squad have almost pushed the robots back across the original defense line; we can hold Grantsburg!” Hazzard said. The 278th and his squad had fought hard to take back the town from the machines, and now it seemed all of their work was going to be for not.

  “I’m well aware of that, and believe me, if it were up to me, Captain, we would push further south than that line, but these orders are coming from the top brass; there’s nothing I can do about it,” Rayne said as he zoomed out the map to show the current locations of the units still fighting south of Grantsburg; they looked to be at the second trench line just south of town.

  “Terrific,” Hazzard said sarcastically. “So what’s the plan now, sir?”

  “You and the Jackboots will accompany the 278th ACR as they continue their drive to the south. Your goal is to recapture the first defensive line. You will then hold that position until new defenses are constructed, clear? Good. I’ve also received word that the 29th LRD, has recently arrived from the Beltway Front; they’ll be here to provide support and hold the passes against a possible flanking assault should it arise,” Rayne said as he closed the holo-map.

  “What about Harlan, Rhodes, and I?” Fischer asked.

  “Your three squads will be heading back to Orion on General Snow’s orders for some R&R and training in the simulators. She’s going up to New Omaha in a week for a series of strategic planning conferences and meetings with the top brass. It looks like High Command is planning something big, could be a major offensive, finally,” Rayne said.

  “I see. And what about the remaining units here?” Fischer asked.

  “As you know the 32nd was heavily devastated during the big HRUO push through town; they’re being rotated out as we speak, and the 2055th Reservist battalion was effectively destroyed during the fighting. Captain Ho-Wan - who is now in command - is auto-mustering the remaining reservists out so they can join up with the rest of refugees,” Rayne said. “Any further questions before we head out?”

  Fischer didn’t say anything, though he had tons of questions that he knew Rayne couldn’t answer. Fischer looked at Rhodes and Harlan and he could see they probably had the same questions too, but they seemed to realize - just as he - that they weren’t going to get any of the answers they wanted or needed from Major Rayne.

  “No? All right dismissed; Captain Fischer, you wanted to see me?” Rayne asked as everyone but Fischer and Rayne exited the tent.

  “Sir, I have Jones’ papers for his psyche evaluation and rehab,” Fischer said as he handed the forms to Rayne.

  “Ahh… I see, Captain. Are you sure you don’t want to forgo all of this and just kick him out now? Intoxication while in combat is a serious offense, you know?” Rayne said as he grabbed out his pen.

  “Sir, I want to give him a second chance. Private Jones is the best tech guy I’ve ever had and has been a real asset to the squad. I would rather keep him than lose him, sir,” Fischer said.

  “Okay, but if he does this again he’s gone with no questions, you got me?” Rayne said as he signed the forms and gave the carbon copies to Fischer.

  “I agree, sir,” Fischer said as he saluted, then folded up the copies, and headed out the tent.

  Fischer knew if they were going to be taking out a robot factory he would need Jones’ talents. If Jones failed his evaluations, he wondered if he could even find a replacement in time, though Fischer had no idea what the timetable would even be for such an attack. With three commando squads training for it, he knew it had to be huge.

  Harlan, Rhodes, and Hazzard were waiting outside for Fischer as he came out. A JLTV was waiting for Hazzard to take him back to his squad. After saying his goodbyes, Hazzard got in the JLTV and drove off.

  “A major offensive, huh? Well, if High Command and the UMI are planning it; I might as well start writing my will right now,” Rhodes said as the three began heading back.

  “Yeah, I’m with you on that,” Harlan said.

  “Hey, when we get back to Orion, drinks are on me, but for now, no more doom and gloom. We’ve got to get our heads together and get ready for what’s coming,” Fischer said as Rhodes and Harlan both nodded reluctantly.

  The air was getting colder under the clear night-sky. The electric hum began to fade for the first time, and it seemed as though the Grantsburg battle was drawing closer to its conclusion. It won’t be long before they come back, Fischer thought.

  Chapter 41

  Brookes entered the church after sitting outside for a bit, watching the fires of Grantsburg light up the night-sky. Th
e Dark Horses had taken up in the church for the night, and Captain Fischer was off meeting with Major Rayne; she was once again out of the loop.

  Brookes walked down the main hall and then went through the large wooden double doors to the sanctuary where everyone was. Upon entering she immediately spotted Martin sitting by himself in the front right pew nearest to the altar; it looked like he was praying, or sleeping; she couldn’t tell which. Kazir and Cross were sitting in the third row on the left. Cross was leaning on Kazir’s right shoulder as she slept, and Kazir was probably awake since he wasn’t snoring.

  Akiyama was sitting at the altar, which she had cleared off, and was busy cleaning the corroded rounds she had found earlier. Porter was sitting by herself in the furthest back pew to the left; she looked to be reading a book. Brookes looked around quickly, but couldn’t see where Jones was. Sanchez and Hartford were sitting together a couple of rows from the back on the right.

  “I’m telling you, Hart, the 1980’s action movies were the best; plain and simple,” Sanchez said as Brookes sat down a few pews behind the two. “Die Hard, the Schwarzenegger movies, Rambo, and that’s just to name a few; I could go on and on.”

  “Please, that 1980’s trash has nothing on the greatest action movie series that came out during the 30’s; I mean the Max Daring movies, come on, it’s no contest!” Hartford said.

  “What? Max Daring? He’s just a shameless knock-off of James Bond, who is way better than Max Daring by the way,” Sanchez said.

  “Shameless knock-off? I don’t remember James Bond going up against killer robots all the time and kicking the crap out of them. Hell, I’d love to see James Bond try and fight his way out of half of a fraction of the stuff that Max Daring went through in Max Daring 2: The Daring Continues, or even in Max Daring 3: Maximum Daring!” Hartford said as she crossed her arms, seemingly confident in her victory in the debate.

  “Oh whatever, those movies were terrible anyways,” Sanchez said, and then turned around and looked at Brookes. “So what do you think, Brookes? The super-awesome 1980’s action movies or the horrible-lame 30’s action movies?”

  “Well, I …”

  “Hey, you can’t put it that way, Sanchez!” Hartford said, interrupting Brookes.

  “Hey, don’t interrupt the Lieutenant, Hart; she was just about to agree with me, right, ma’am?” Sanchez said, and then gave Brookes his best, sad puppy-dog look.

  “I-I’m going to … stay out of this one,” Brookes said as she got up, though she actually agreed more with Hartford than with Sanchez.

  “See what you did, Sanchez, you scared the Lieutenant away; good going,” Hartford said sarcastically as Brookes walked over to Porter.

  Sanchez and Hartford kept going back and forth as Brookes sat down next to Porter.

  “Oh brother,” Brookes said as she watched Sanchez and Hartford squabbling about movies. She glanced over to her left and looked at Porter who was still reading. “Hey, Porter, what ya reading?”

  “The Bible,” Porter said; her eyes still on the pages of the book. “I found it in the cubby hole in front of me. I thought I would flip through it. I hear it helps bring people comfort when they read it.”

  “So, is it bringing you any comfort?” Brookes asked.

  “No, not really, ma’am, there’s a lot of crazy stuff in this book. I’ve been mainly flipping through it, trying to find the craziest or the funniest verses,” Porter said as she looked up to Brookes and smiled.

  “Oh, yeah? Find anything good?” Brookes asked.

  “Let’s see -- Timothy two: eleven through twelve, let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness,” Brookes said and then chuckled.

  “Heh, I guess I shouldn’t go into teaching. Are there any funny ones?” Brookes asked.

  “Yeah, just a sec, ma’am -- here we go, Malachi two-three; behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and ye shall be taken away with it,” Porter said as she looked back at Brookes with a disgusted look on her face.

  “Wow, that’s pretty disgusting,” Brookes said with a slight chuckle as Porter closed the book and put it back into the cubby hole from which she found it.

  “Well, that was a nice distraction, but it didn’t really help. I still have no idea what I’m going to do, ma’am. Did you know that Captain Fischer wanted to know if I was interested in joining the Dark Horses?” Porter said as she stared blankly ahead.

  “Yeah, he told me earlier he was going to ask you and he asked me what I thought about it. I thought you would make a nice addition -- after some training in the simulators, of course. So, what did you say to him?” Brookes asked.

  “I told him that I would think about it, but I just don’t know; the way he looked at me when he asked me, it was just -- he seemed like he was just requisitioning something he might need in the future, rather than -- I don’t know; it was just strange. I’m just a former videographer slash reporter turned temporary Reservist for just a single battle. And then suddenly the Captain Fischer is asking me to join his squad? Was it just because I survived, and I know some tech stuff? I don’t get it.”

  “No, it’s more than just that, Porter. You stayed with me in that bunker when it looked hopeless, and even after Riley had fled; that takes some guts. And you know what? Sanchez told me that he couldn’t believe how fast you got the AR launchers loaded for him, and that if you weren’t there we may have been overrun a lot sooner. I’m sure you’re probably already aware of all that though. So, what’s the real problem?”

  “I was thinking; I’m not sure if I want to be in a commando squad. But you know what I thinking when I saw Christina Norris standing there about to give you her interview in that stupid get-up of hers? I thought about how awesome it would be to run over there and punch the living daylights out of her, and then take over for her. Reporting the news and digging up dirt is my blood; I can feel it. But all of the shit they pile on you at GNN; it just makes working there for someone like me, unbearable,” Porter said as she pounded her fist into her palm.

  “Well, if you want to report the news you have to go through GNN, right? There are no other news reporting agencies out there, even most of the local news is controlled by them,” Brookes said.

  “I know. I was actually thinking about the Innominates, they’re always looking for more sources for news and information to get out there on the net,” Porter said as though she had found the answer.

  “The Innominates? Aren’t they that illegal sub-net hacking organization?” Brookes asked; she had always heard bad things about them.

  “Yes, but there’s more to them than that, a good number of my contacts - even the ones in the military - were, and still are members of that group. They’re more concerned about getting the real information out there to the public, and having a return to the free and open internet of the days before the robot attacks. I find their cause to be just and noble,” Porter said.

  “Just and noble? They rip off credit accounts of innocent people and businesses. They’re also the main information brokers for the criminal underground. They’re nothing more than two-bit thugs hiding behind a computer screen as far as I’m concerned. There’s got to be another way, Porter,” Brookes said.

  “I can’t see one. If I go back to GNN they’ll just bury me with their corporate crap and treat me like dirt. At least with the Innominates I’ll know my stories will get out there and it will be a lot safer than if I try to free-lance it - which if I did - my stuff would be taken down in a matter of minutes,” Porter said.

  “I don’t know, Porter. Like I said earlier, I think you would make a nice addition to the Dark Horses. But if you don’t want to join, I strongly urge you to reconsider joining the Innominates, okay?” Brookes said as she put her hand on Porter’s shoulder.

  Porter didn’t say anything for a few seconds as she stared off and then looked back at Brookes.


  “Yeah, okay, I’ll think about it,” Porter said with a slight nod.

  “Good. Okay, I’m going to go see how everyone else is doing,” Brookes said, and then stood up. Porter nodded.

  Brookes glanced at Porter as she walked off; she seemed to be seriously conflicted. Brookes was really hoping she would join, she knew Porter could become a great asset to the squad.

  Brookes walked over to where Martin was sitting; he was now talking with Sanchez and Hartford. The chainsaw noise that now echoed throughout the church meant that Kazir had fallen asleep; Cross was still leaning against his shoulder, sleeping as well.

  How does she sleep next to that racket? Brookes wondered as she sat down behind Martin.

  “When are you retiring again, old man?” Sanchez asked.

  “Watch it, meathead, or I’ll have you running laps around the church till you pass-out,” Martin said, and then punched Sanchez in the left arm. “I’m retiring at the end of January, happy?”

  “Oh, come on, Sarge, you know Hart and I would miss you. All of your yelling, your angry looks, and your -- angry yelling. I’m really going to miss you … so much,” Sanchez said, and then began wiping off fake tears from under his eyes.

  “Hmm… well, I’ll make sure to give you plenty helpings of all of the angry yelling before I leave,” Martin said, and then looked over at Hartford on his left. “And you? You’re going to be top-NCO after I’m gone, so it will be up to you to make sure this meathead here doesn’t goof-off too much.”

  “No promises,” Hartford said as she winked at Sanchez.

  “Ugh…” Martin sighed, and then stood up. “I’m going to the bathroom; don’t destroy the church before I get back.”

  Martin headed down the aisle and then walked through the double doors at the back. Sanchez watched carefully until Martin was out of sight.

  “You know what, Hart? I’m really glad that man didn’t die out there,” Sanchez said.

  “Well, I think everyone’s glad he didn’t die, you idiot,” Hartford said as she looked at Brookes and rolled her eyes.