Astro Battle

WARBOTS MOBILIZE

Down the hall we will rendezvous with my Warbots. Be careful.

Each Tactical Engineer maintained a retinue of bots. And this arrangement
greatly improved the effectiveness of both engineer and bot. For many bots
were not mindless automatons but they shared very unique personality
traits. As a matter of fact it was learned ages ago yet never known why that
a bot's personality core could not be transferred or copied.

Bots without unique personality cores were called robos and bots always
seemed to outperform robos in Astro Battle. It was assumed that just like in
humans a diversity of thought and action made tactics more creative and
harder to predict and counter.

"Uhm, sir. Aren't your warbots broken?" Bodgie asked with hesitation.

And what Bodgie said about broken bots was partially true. There was nothing
wrong with Lester's bot chassis due to regular maintenance, their personalities
were however--different. As a matter of fact all three of Lester's bots had been
in the retinue of other Tactical Engineers before and all three had been slated
for personality core removal for a variety of defects.

Lester rescued each of them and treated them like beloved family vs the
typical relationship where Tactical Engineers treated their bots like Eskimos
of ancient used to treat utilitarian sled dogs that they might get hungry and
have to eat one day.

His other two Warbots were full-sized and formidable compared to the miniature
Critter. Critter was really not a warbot at all but a special type of bot that
moved through tight spaces in machinery to repair wires and equipment. He
was particularly fast at wiring ships using his tail to doll out cable. Beyond
that he was very fast, agile a climber and benefited from more than a few
modifications from Lester himself.

But why would someone , anyone want loyal critter's personality bot cast in the
fire. Bot personalities are a lot like humans. They have feelings, wants and
desires. Their ultimate purpose in life is to expect their last bits in the service
of their human master and Critter was the most exemplary bot of all these
virtues. Bots also experience trauma that can change their personality core
forever. It was not known to Less what happened to Critter.... But he was mute
from the day he entered Lester's service. Less protected him. And what use is
a mute bot? You'll see.

The two others came as a pair. Nand and Xor. They were powerful but argued
frequently. Nand was female and prone to making critiques about any plan... She was slated for the crucible not because of incompetence but because Tactical Engineers were tired of having a bot rain on their parade when any and every plan was being wrought.

And Xor was the opposite. He seemed to have no common sense and no
awareness of danger. Lester fixed both of these capable bots without
unscrewing a single exterior panel. He just put them together and let Xor do
annoying things so Nand spend her extra energy criticizing him and keeping
him in line leaving little room for editorial on how her Tactical Engineering was
doing.

It was probably the most amazing team in history that also no one respected
even a lick. And remember this amazing but awful team was down to one tiny
bot so at the moment this diacotomy of skill was blunted in every way.
"The junction!" Bodgie saw the destination and all hover boots terminated as
their wearers slid to a safe halt. "Where's Mr Greely?"

"Found him! Ed was standing listless in the middle. " Jet ran to his advisor with
great excitement. "

No wait! Less yelled!,

But his warning did nothing. The moment Jet reached his destination Edward
Disappeared .... a hologram... and he didn't disappear into just anything. He was now a
giant Zell brute standing on his hind legs. The Brute swept Jet up and bit his
head off dropping the body to die

"Jet! Bodgie and Gray cowarded behind Less.

The Brute fell forward and braced impact with his front arms.... he was now on
all fours--the preferred walking style for a Zell and atop his mange an unwanted
thing lay perched-- it was the Zell boss that Critter had just roughed up. He
had gotten back before they did. Vraylar gave his brute mount the honor of throwing Jet's head in their direction, knocking the cadets down like bolling balls. Lester protected himself from the
minor projectile using a minor force field.

"Zell scum" Lester insulted. "What the hell do you want?"

More Zell galloped out of hiding and flanked Vraylar's mount hissing and
gnawing to intimidate their victims. In the next moment it would be total carnage and then the little team of Zell would move on to greater mayhems throughout the doomed flotilla.

Lester chucked a microbomb right at the Brute who countered by opening his
mouth and generating a spatial distortion geometry. Exactly what Lester wanted. The bomblet was a delivery mechanism for the shimmer nano-bots. On impact the bomblet exploded and the distortion spread a shroud in an instant. No one could see, but Less and Critter.

Without words critter executed part two. From his tail he fired a micro harpoon
that connected with the junction ceiling. With one, two, three hands he
grabbed the remaining living members of the party and then with surprising
strength hoisted all far above the chaos.

Dangling like gems on a gaudy shadalier all did their best to counter the
Natural oscillation of angular momentum on a string. Grey's panicked face was pushed right into
Critters head. Critters eyes blinked yellow and green (his best attempt at
soothing)

Below confused zell scraped and scratched, bit and blasted every ground
object they happened into (including each other) in a blind attempt to get to
their prey. If Vraylar hadn't been barking like mad to get them to stop they
might have eliminated each other with no further action needed by our heroes. And in fact two Zell rabble already lie dead.

Command is what makes a Zell boss dangerous. The boss is the anecdote to the
reckless spirit of the Zell... a reckless spirit that while terrible would make them
not much of a threat sans guidance.

The Zell, now totally blind made contact and crept together towards an arbitrary
direction and eventually were able to exit the cloud.... blocking the very hallway
that Lester needed.

"we need to get back into the shimmer or they might see us up here. Critter spun the party and detached each in turn making them land in different parts of the shimmer soup.

Now all but the Zell were shrouded in the shimmer and a true stalemate was in effect.

Less was beeping and popping on his wrench console then suddenly his entire
crew could 'see' through the shimmer albeit it was distorted like viewing
through the bottom of a swimming pool.

Gray saw an option for escape and took down the corridor, but was tripped by
Critter at Less's command.

On private comms Less: "Dumbass! once we leave the shimmer they will track us down and it will be head salad all over again."

Let’s get them with this, the Tactical Engineers standard side arm which was
equipped with a tiny concussive blast emitter--the most powerful and fearsome
weapon the world had ever seen if the year was 300 B.C and their enemies
were dodo birds... The standard issue embedded blaster could cut things,
vaporize barriers and ambush sleeping prey but probably couldn't make a Zell's
eye tear up if they shot it at maximum power at point blank range. still they
had utility.

He checked on the status of the warbots.... they were wading through a rabble
of Zell themselves and would be further delayed.

Ed wasn't so far off.... He generated a hologram of Bodgie and gave it his side
arm. The reset was easy.... the 3 survivors ambled off into a safe corner
activated the program and holo Bodgie began firing his weapon in all directions
, shouting "Die! You unworthy foe" Zell did not like being called unworthy.

From Lester's control he let the hologram get closer to the edge of the shimmer
and indeed he lowered the shimmers opacity.

Finally holo Bodgie immerged from the threshold of the shimmer blasting his toy gun in
every direction "Unworthy! Unworthy!" The hologram said (for they had run out
of creative things to say)
This stupid move drove the lesser Zell mad. Four Rabbels leapt in the direction of the insults despite the boss Zell's protests that it was an obvious trap and upon contact a concussive explosion destroyed the four Zell in a satisfying way.

"Crimpers!" Fight us fair not with some bad mannered hologram. Vraylar protested.

"Lets stop this fighting and go see a movie or something", Lester channeled his
half brother Alexander sometimes when he taunted the Zell.

"Movie! What’s that? We can sit through your decimation... or our own.... nothing less."

The Zell loosed some encouragement into the shimmer in the form of bolts of
energy. One hit would send a cadet to heaven, but the shimmer made that
unlikely since it was a large space and the Zell simply couldn't see.
"If you put your face in you can see us better." Lester offered. This made his
cadets incredulous. But every Zell came from a long line of many things... one
of those being a complete dummy.

Again against the pleas of his Zell boss a Rabbel thrust his head into the
shimmer only to recoil suddenly with some type of pink goo permanently
hardened to his eyes and face.

"Perfect, Critter." Lester praised

Two more Zell leaned in to see how their comrade had been taken off the roster
list so to speak including the Brute. Their comrade writhed in agony and started to have some success ripping the pink glue from his facial carapace he cussed the human party. Gluing
eyes shut would have passed as a juvenile prank not a wartime advantage
had not Lester laced the glue with one of his concussion bombs. BOOOM
The afflicted and two closely witnessing his struggle lost their heads .... This battle was almost over. But it wasn't as dust settled

Four Zell laid slain, but the biggest one, the Brute that the Boss was riding,
his carapace was too strong. Lester's bombs had no effect on his powerful
Armor..

Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack! Suck It!” screem Vraylar.

Bodgie looked at Lester , perhaps hopeful for what the command "Suck it" might mean, but neither expected it to be fun.

It turned out to be an unconventional attack on the shimmer. As his Brute 'began
to deeply inhale or suck in the shimmer'.... the brute complied. In a matter of
minutes the shimmer was gone for in Astro Battle there is always measure and counter
measure . The moment a Tactical Engineer starts to rely on a solution is
the moment before he dies after his counter produces a totally unexpected
counter measure.

In moments the key to the party's stealth would be gone. Grey imagined some
fresh carnage that he didn't want to live through. and lost his mind.

“I surrender. I will surrender to you if you promise my safety and that of my
Comrades.”

"We don't have any safety for ‘people’ only scum.” Vraylar relished victory

Grey: "Ok.... thats fine."

The Zell boss liked this. "Young creature , They have us Zell wrong.... human
life is precious to us and saving one is the greatest aim. Come. Join us and
help us end this little war. We do not, however, save 'comrades, only first
movers brave enough to love us Zell gain our respect as they should so move
Fast."

Grey sprang for the opportunity, now afraid of losing his first mover advantage.

Lester shrieked "It's a TRAP. " But Grey wasn't having it. He ran right to the
clutches of Vraylar's brute

Grey: "I know but I can' t help it. There's something about having my head chopped
off that just makes me depressed all day. I'll do my best to negotiate your
Survival.

The Shimmer was almost gone at this point and a relieved Grey approached
Vraylar and his Brute.

"I Surrender. I have always had the greatest respect scary monsters and -- hey --- "

Grey's speech would have gone on but was halted when they started to manhandle him.
The Brute lifted Grey in the air and shoved Grey's head in his mouth.
"MY eyes!" was Greys last words before the Brutes beak crushed down and
Made him into a headless corpse.

Vraylar and the remaining two rabble laughed at their little trick.

Thinking fast Less released a simultaneous attack of four microbombs.... Customized from his kit each was bestowed with a special shaped charge in the service of decapitating that problematic Brute.

Explosion! The two rabbles were completely obliterated never to bother
anyone again and the Brute had been knocked on his back.

It was unclear how much damage he had taken and of course the boss was missing.

Lester now had 2 microbombs left. The first was infused with nano-shimmer if
a little more time was needed to beat a hasty retreat.... The second’s configuration wasn’t determined yet.

Bodgie and Less approached the carnage with great caution...
All seemed in order, potentially the boss was trapped under the girth of the
mighty brutes's body.

Lester stopped first and released a tiny camera bot to float all the way up and
capture a closeup of the carnage. But impatient Bodgie walked right up close
enough to see over the mighty beasts' belly and in a flash Bodgie was snatched
by the neck. Lester retreated back and exploded his second to last micro bomb,
creating a new shimmer zone temporarily throwing the Zells off his trail.

It was only a matter of time before the Zell suck machine did his environmental
duty again and Lester would be cornered.

"Hahahaha! chortled Vraylar. You humans are dumb" (no one argued this
statement)

Bodgie writhed and paniced.... he knew what was next for him.

Suddenly a high powered sniper blast ripped through the hall and hit the brute in the eye. No
Effect.

"That's my Bodgie, you can't have my Bodgie!" Greely chimed in.

Lester frantically checked the status of his warbots. They were close...
seconds away even, but that was meaningless. This conflict would end now. A
final ruse was needed and his quick mind had an unconventional idea
He pushed his final bomblett back into the kit and command strip anti armor,
propulsion leave bear. Add primitive contact fuse.... the little device went to
work customizing the explosive.

"Wait." Lester said to the beastie. Put him down. I am in charge. I will
negotiate surrender of the entire flotilla AND tell you where the Tzo Crystal is located on this ship "Tzo chrystal?" Ed Gasped

On private comms "So thats whee you were hiding, Ed.... don't ruin my bluff "

"This scrawny thing for you and a Tzo Crystal..... but we get to keep his head."

"No, he we all keep our heads I don't know about you but we humans like our
heads. Give us that and I take you to the real Tzo crystal... not a fake."

"Accepted" Vraylar chimed without even considering the deal.
The Brute dropped Bodgie who scurried away. And Lester slowly emerged from
the safety of the shimmer... quite, stoic, his mouth stressed but slammed shut
The brute grabbed Less and pulled him close to his gaping jaws... precisely a
move not in accordance with the agreement, but Less did not flinch.
"No words, human. No Matter. We Zell care nothing for a Zto crystal.... But that
is a very nice head I would like to have it ..."

Vraylar clicked the stirrups of his mount and the Zell brute opened wide to accept his next victim, but then Lester spit something out a tiny ball that projected through the air and into the
brutes open mouth, probably landing deep in his stomach.

At that time the Brute dropped Lester in a panic and started to shove both
hands down his throat in an effort to retrieve whatever it was lester had just
Spat.

Vraylar looked in confusion.

Then with rocket speed Critter jumped to the small of Lester's back. His tail
was firmly attached to something deep in the shimmer. In an instant the tail
contracted and Lester was brought to a safe 20 meters away Vraylar gave a look to Lester like
"That wasn't fair" but it was too late. The brute’s stomach quickly expanded and an unsatisfying boom rang out like a man holding in a sneeze... Black smoke flowed from the Brutes mouth over his green and confused eyes and then in the next second he fell to the floor dead. The Zell were no longer a threat.

"Vraylar sat stunned trying to process his spectacular defeat for a moment..
At this point Lester's standard issue pistol could have made quick work of the
little monster but in the spirit of all the fun the Zell were trying to have Less
decided the party shouldn't just end.

"What do we do with the boss? " asked Bodgie.... Lester gave a knowing look
and suggested "Drop kick him to the nearest moon"

Bodgie, now activated and deputized, put on a protective glove, easily chased
down and captured their rival and then gave him a rather excellent drop kick.

“Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack!” SPLAT!

"How did you know I played football in college?.

But no answer from Less.... he was already onto the next task.

Edward dislodged himself from his hiding spot and stoically approached the
dead. Being a soldier and mentally fortified for death as he should have been
wasn't enough in this moment. Greely shed some tears and received more
comfort from Bodgie and Less who were more stoic about the loss of their
Comrades "At least they didn't get you, Bodgie!" Ed cried… I was waiting for the right shot… i couldn’t do it without you, Lester.

Then a large bang.... a service panel on an unseen hall fell off..... Ed and Bodgie
hugged each other in anticipation of more face eating, but Less knew only to
feer a blasted panel for a cut panel meant warbots.

"Repair weld access" Nand nagged Xor. "suspend repair caused scuttle" Xor
"You fixed every breach you created? Is that what took so long!? Don't
Answer."

Now that are chances of survival are up, I guess we ask the question what to
do, posited Ed.

"Escape." said Less, "WE have to escape the flotilla and make it to the fold"