Marc J. Mitchell

Preview of Hard Targets

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​“HEAD BACK TO THE RAV’s!”

 
Turning, the group made a dead run back toward the waiting RAV’s.   The mass group of battle bots trudged after then, trampling through the high grasses, their constant laser fire splintering trees and tearing chunks out of the soft ground. 

“These suckers don’t know when to stop.” Roy commented as he ran.
Vaulting over a large fallen log, Logan turned, ducked behind it.  Checking the power gauge on his blaster, he peered over the log and began firing at the advancing group of bots. Following Logan’s lead, Roy stopped, turned and dropped down flat on the ground. Replacing the spent power pack with a fresh one in his blaster rifle, he began firing also. “Jayme! Kat! Get back to the RAV’s. We’ll hold them off for as long as we can,” Logan yelled without turning around.
“Are you nuts,” Jayme yelled as she ducked a stray blaster bolt.
Ducking to avoid getting hit, Logan looked towards them.  “Yeah, I am nuts.  Didn’t you hear that?”
“I did,” Katarina said.  Grabbing Jayme by the arm, she hooked a thumb in the direction of the vehicles. “Come on. The boys want to play with their little guns.” Turning she started off.  Jayme ran after her.
Turning his attention back to the problem at hand, He yelled over to Roy, “Got any fireworks on you?”
Rolling behind a nearby boulder, Roy opened the backpack. After a few seconds, he said, “Got two party poppers.”
Suddenly a portion of the log that Logan was hiding behind exploded in a shower of debris.  “We gotta move. My cover is blown…literally.”  Turning, he took aim on one of the leading bots. Bolt after bolt bounced harmlessly of the bot‘s chest. “Damn. Some type of reflective armor.  Blasters are useless.”
Roy let loose with a fury of rapid shots.  Bolts struck another bot in the head, chest, arm and leg. “What are they made of? Not a weak spot on them.”
“It looks like they might be a new model.”  Looking around, Logan suddenly took aim at a huge tree. Bolt after bolt slammed into the base of the tree, blowing chunks out of it. Roy noticed what Logan was planning and started firing on the same spot.  Suddenly the tree toppled over, pinning a few of the bots under it and making a makeshift barrier. Taking aim, they both fired again at another tree. Within a few minutes, another tree fell.   
“That should slow them down for a little while,” Logan said as he stood up and dusted himself off.   No sooner had the words left his mouth, another tree exploded into a shower of debris. 
“Are you ok over there,” Roy called out.
“What’s left of me is,” Logan coughed.  His face was spackled with bits of the blown up tree.  Ducking and covering his head, he turned back to look at the blockade that he had just made.
It seemed to still be intact; the bots had stopped advancing, but he had a feeling that it was too easy to stop them that easily. 
Looking around, he tried to find out where that recent blast had come from. Suddenly, without warning, a smaller version of the battle bots appeared from the dense foliage. Standing there, the human sized robot looked from Logan to Roy, its servos humming and clicking as if it was trying to process information. Looking at the bot’s eye sensor, he noticed that it was cracked and there was a huge dent in its head. “Roy, get moving…slowly. I think that it is having a hard time processing info since it’s damaged.  Go check on the girls. I have a feeling that it won’t bother with you.” 
Keeping his blaster trained on the bot, Roy slowly started moving in the direction that Jayme & Katarina had run.  “Are you sure you going to be ok?”
“I should be ok.  Now haul ass outta here & make sure they are not getting into any trouble,” Logan said as he slowly started to stand, never taking his eyes off the robot.
Never noticing Roy leave, the bot stood firm.  After a few more seconds, the clicking and humming stopped. Suddenly its eye turned red and charged at Logan.  Logan aimed at the advancing bot and began firing repeatedly at it.



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“We can’t go that way.  Got a couple battle bots between us and the RAV’s,” Jayme told Roy as he watched another bot crash to the ground in a heap of scrap.
“How many do you think?” he asked as he started firing into another advancing bot.
“I’m thinking at least three more, maybe four,” Katarina said over the whine of blaster fire.
“What are we going to do know?” Jayme asked.
“You two aim for the base of a tree to try to knock it down. It won’t stop those clanking rust buckets, but it will slow them down for a bit,” Roy yelled to the women.
Taking aim, both women concentrated on firing into the base of a tree.  After a few well placed shots, the tree splintered, began to fall…only to be stopped, getting caught on another nearby tree.  “Damn,” Katarina swore.  “All that and for what?”
Without warning, several blaster bolts slammed into the semi fallen tree. Turning around, they saw Logan emerge from the overgrowth. After a few more shots, the tree finally gave way and crashed down; crushing the bot that Roy had been firing at.  “Ok, let’s split up and run like hell. The RAV’s are not that far. Roy, you and Jayme head that way,” Logan pointed to the left part of the downed tree, “and Kat and I will head to the right.  We’ll swing wide, that way it might confuse them a bit. Besides taking out one or two of those tin cans is better than trying to take out a dozen at a time. Also toss me a thermo. I might need to have an insurance maker.”
Jayme reached into Roy’s backpack and grabbed a thermal grenade.  Tossing it to Logan, she smiled. “You two going to be ok?” she asked.
“First ones there get to choose the color of the next paint job on them,” Katarina said with a smile.
“Be careful you two,” Logan said as he motioned for Katarina to follow him.