“Hurry, Matt, it’s almost to the snag wire!” Garner exclaimed.
“I know! I know!” Evans responded as he watched his red targeting reticule lock-on and then immediately lose its lock-on on the Three.
Evans knew there wasn’t much he could do about it. He was going to have to switch it to manual.
“Going to manual!” Evans yelled as he flipped the switch on the side of the firing mechanism. The red targeting reticule turned green and stopped moving as it centered itself in the scope. “Load me after I fire, Helen!”
“Wilco!”
The Three bounded up and down as it traversed the rough terrain on its six legs. The snag wire was only meant to hold the Ones and Twos, but if the Three got too close it would breakthrough and their position could easily become compromised.
“Come on… come on… come on…” Evans said to himself as he tried to get a clear shot on the Three; his finger was on the trigger as he readied to fire.
Just then the Three got into a clearing and it was wide-open, ten meters from the snag wire.
“Firing!” Evans yelled as he pulled the trigger and closed his eyes from the initial back-blast and recoil from the missile launching.
Evans opened his eyes just in time to see the missile fly towards the Three and then veer sharply off to the left, and then tumble out-of-control.
“Shit!” Evans said as he watched the missile explode way behind the Three which was now breaking through the snag wire, only a hundred meters away from Evans. “Load me up, hurry!”
Garner was quick to put another missile in the tube. As the snag wire failed; the Three had gotten through and the previously tangled bots were now free to continue their attack.
“Fuck! Everyone fallback, now!” Wayne ordered. “Evans, take that fucker out before you and Garner fallback!”
Evans glanced to his left and saw the rest of his platoon running to the access trench to escape. He then nodded to Wayne just as he turned and headed out behind the rest of his platoon.
Evans went back to his scope. He had a cleaner shot on the Three now and set his launcher back to auto-lock. The targeting reticule switched back to red and took less than a second to get the lock he was looking for. He pulled the trigger and the missile launched cleanly as it made a bee-line for the Three’s head. The missile impacted straight-on as it caused the bot’s head to explode into a flurry of flame. The Three’s legs buckled and it buried itself into the cratered ground as it collapsed.
“Nice shot!” Garner said as she lightly hit Evans on the back of his helmet; the two sharing a quick smile.
“Thanks. Now, let’s fallback with the others,” Evans said as his eyes shifted from Garner to the robot hordes descending upon their position.
The two turned to leave for the access trench when Evans heard the whistle of another plasma round incoming. He grabbed Garner and the two tried to duck as the round impacted not too far in front of them; the blast blowing them backwards.
Evans, dazed, sat up, but Garner on his left was lying face down. She wasn’t moving.
“Helen? Helen!” Evans said as he crawled over to her. He turned her over and saw a chunk of concrete imbedded and what was left of her left eye socket. Her right eye was wide open as it stared through Evans, sending a shiver down his spine. “Oh god no, Helen, no!”
Evans gave her a quick shake and tried to feel for a pulse, but there was none. He picked himself up and tried to pick up Garner’s limp body as well. He then started for the access trench, but the round had exploded right in the middle of the intersection of the trenches and collapsed them; there was no way through.
Just then Evans heard a clanking sound to his right and looked in that direction. There was a Three closing in quickly, way inside his AR launcher’s minimum firing distance; it was practically on top of him for that matter. He could make out the nozzles for its horrific flamethrower. Its head was turned to its right; it was preparing to sweep the trench with flame.
Evans ran away in the opposite direction. Not stopping to grab Garner or his AR launcher. He could hear the roar and feel the heat from the Three’s flamethrower as it burned down the trench line. He looked back as he ran and could no longer see Garner as the area behind him was engulfed.
The Three spotted him as he ran and it turned to chase after. Evans looked in front of him; he could see he was running out of trench, fast. Out of the corner of his left eye he could see the Ones getting closer; they were almost to the trench as well.
Evans came to the dead end and tried desperately to climb out, but he slipped and twisted his right ankle as he fell on his back. He then quickly turned around to face what was sure to be his fiery doom.
The Three stopped thirty meters or so away and prepared to fire. A couple of Ones began to fall and tumble into the trench in front of him, they had spotted him too. Evans hoped the flames would kill him before the metal claws of the Ones could tear him apart.
Evans closed his eyes and then heard what sounded like a missile streaking in from overhead. He heard an explosion and opened his eyes to see the Three with its head missing. The thing stumbled around and then collapsed, exploding completely when it hit the ground.
“Did you see that, Hart, ain’t I great, or what?” A voice from behind loudly exclaimed, but Evans didn’t pay much attention to it as the Ones in front of him, unconcerned by whoever fired that missile, picked themselves up to attack Evans.
“Kazir - Hartford, twelve o’clock, take ‘em out! Sanchez - Akiyama, cover them,” a voice behind Evans ordered as he watched the Ones in front of him fall like dominos from the heavy laser fire pouring down onto them.
Evans looked up and saw a tall woman in black commando thermal camo, standing on the brim of the trench above him. She fired a dozen or so shots with her laser rifle to Evans’ right and then looked down into the trench.
“Cap, we’ve got a Reg here and he’s still alive!” the woman yelled as a man ran up to her and looked down at Evans.
“Okay. Good work, Hartford, back-up Kazir and secure the rest of the right flank. Cross, get over here!” The Captain ordered as Hartford ran-off. The Captain extended down his right hand to Evans as he awkwardly tried to stand up. “You okay, Corporal?”
Evans nodded at first, but then shook his head no as he tried to put pressure on his twisted ankle. He looked up to his left to see another woman, a medic running over to them.
“Sir?” the medic asked, but then immediately spotted Evans as the Captain helped him out of the trench.
“Tend to this soldier, Cross. I’m going to get those retreating Regs back, so we can hold this line,” The Captain said, and then left; Evans didn’t see to where.
“What’s your name, Corporal? Where are you hurt?” Cross asked, and then opened up and dug through her medical bag.
“Evans. Ehh… Matt Evans, oww… god damn it, my fucking ankle. I think it’s twisted, or broken,” Evans replied, wincing in pain as he fell back to the ground.
“All right, hold still, Evans. I’m going to give you some morphine and then bandage up your ankle, okay?” Cross said as she pricked Evans on the thigh with a morphine syrette.
The pain melted away as Evans began to feel a little calmer. He looked around in front of him and could see the commandos working their way down the line systematically as they were wiping out the machines. Their portion of the line looked to be secure, for now.
“Hey, try to stay with me, Evans,” Cross said, snapping her fingers in front of his face to get his attention; he must have been drifting off without realizing it. “Captain Fischer is bringing up your unit and they’ll get you to a med station.”
“Captain Fischer? Are - are you in the Dark Horse Commando Squad?” Evans asked as he looked up at Cross and then spotted the unit patch on her sleeve.
“Yes.” Cross nodded, and then began to tightly wrap up Evans’ ankle.
“Wow. What are you all doing out here?” Evans asked as the morphine was really beginning to take
effect.
Cross was just about to respond as she stood up; Fischer had run up, close by to Evans’ left.
“Come on, Cross. The Regs can take it from here. Jones just radioed-in; he says the UMI is reporting more HRUOs hitting the northern sector, so that’s where we’re heading next. If those damn robots break-through, they’ll cut Route 29 and capture the old Culpeper airport,” Fischer said as he shook his head in disgust. “Haggardson is en-route to pick us up; gather up your gear, we’re moving-out.”
Cross nodded and grabbed her medical bag. She then gave a quick reassuring smile to Evans. The two left to Evans’ left as a Phaeton with a large insignia with a black horse head and a white number one inside of it landed fifty meters away. The commandos got in and the Phaeton took off. He watched the dropship fly-off as he saw a couple of medics running over to him from that direction.
Wow… Captain Fischer and the Dark Horses, I didn’t even know they were still around; Evans thought as he was put on a stretcher and carried away. He closed his eyes and thought of Garner just before losing consciousness.
Thank you for reading. The Robot Wars saga continues with book two…
Robot Wars:
A Desperate Need
Coming Soon!
Robot Wars: Thrown Into the Fray Page 31