Episode 3
In the morning, they report to school and a short bus ride takes them across town to where an arena lies in a natural hollow. The first few hours are exciting for the children, but no so exciting for the adults- going over health and safety, weapons checks and training and the usual foregoing of any PPE.
By around eleven they are all excited when the Atlas transport starts unloading large crates. Several dozen more people have arrived to spectate, and an invisible but strong barrier rises up between the crowd and the arena. As they watch, Colonel Jankya supervises the robot guards as they unload the crates. An array of varying robots is revealed. Some are spider-like and some are tank-like but for the most part they are roughly humanoid in shape. Surprisingly for such a meek and mild mannered person, Marigold starts running through various arms and armaments that the robots might have- and assesses their strengths and weaknesses.
The children learn that this is a ‘live firing’ test, - hence the screens and the lack of PPE – the robots are all models from Atlas- either failed prototypes, or obsolete stock. A spinny spinner spins and selects the terrain – woodland! A tree-lined clearing takes the place of the bare arena floor. The children are given wristbands that relay biometric data to the controllers.
“What’s this readout?” One technician asks.
“It’s a measure of their fear.”
“Why is it in centimetres?”
“That’s the diameter….It’s apparently proportional to the amount of fear the subject is experiencing.”
“Of what?…..Oh….Er…Now I get it!”
The first challenge is taken up by Autumn, who strides purposefully into the clearing to meet a huge robot. It is the shape of a man and about the height of a first floor window. It has a disproportionately huge chopper. The sword is kinda big too!
Big blade robot. BBR-13.
The robot is polite enough for Autumn to make the first move. He charges at it full tilt. The chopper comes down inches from Autumn’s head. There is a gasp from the crowd. The robot’s shield comes up and thuds into him. Autumn veers left and scrambles up a tree. The robot starts slashing at the trees, felling a few of the saplings. However, the swaying branches obscure its vision. Autumn leaps for the machine’s head, landing deftly on the top. The robot shakes its head to try to dislodge him. Autumn dances a little jig to try and maintain balance. The shield comes up and tries to scrape him from his vantage point. By now Autumn is pummelling a the head with all his might. The shield catches him a glancing blow, making him grit his teeth – that hurt! –But it’s a good hurt!
Eventually the robot manages to dislodge this annoying human, and they trade blows on the floor. Autumn is rolling with the bows but not avoiding them completely. His hair is shaken loose from its hairband, and some would even say it started glowing a deeper shade of red. A blow nearly fells him, and he staggers for a second. The sword comes down for a smash, but our plucky hero leaps onto the hilt, jumps to the robot’s knee and springs up to the plate covering its chest. With a mighty heave he rips open a sizable panel, exposing gears and cogs and wires and electronics. The robot beats its chest, but with a powerful sweep, Autumn rips at the thing’s innards. Sparks and smoke explode in his face. In the control box, the observers hover over the kill switch. But the robot is vanquished. Its gears stop for a second, before it topples over with an almighty crash.
Autumn is
underneath. The weight of the thing knocks all the breath from his (stunt
double’s) body, and makes an Autumn-shaped depression in the ground. With
his last breath and a last almighty heave, he flings the robot across the
arena, where it lands with a crash. Smoke curls from its innards.
Rapturous applause ripples around him. He smiles. He fancies a glimmer of a smile from his sister, but this is short lived. As the announcer calls Autumn’s name and pronounces him the victor, the poor lad topples over….And face-plants into the dirt!
Little Bee leaps up. “My turn!”
A CS-Hunter Mk-4 is her opponent. It is part tank, part large bug-like. The spinner spins and selects forest again. Little Bee looks like she should hold a shopping bag in front of the tank, for all the good it might do. Still, at least she can have the first move….
The robot has no such qualms about who goes first. A turret on the top opens up and a minigun starts spraying the area with hot lead. Pods erupt from the sides and several missiles streak towards the young girl. In an instant, Little Bee is running and dodging and weaving – If anyone could run between raindrops, they could take a lesson in doing so now. In a blur, Bee has weaved under the fusillade of ordnance and managed to get under its field of fire. She opens up with everything she’s got. The droid counters with some harsh language.
“Traverse turret!”
“Order nine engaged!”
“Code red two!”
“Code four parallel!”
Arm Robot
Little Bee concentrates fire on some key points, while dodging and being hit by wildly traversing gun barrels and rocket pod launchers. The pair are actually evenly matched, but as Bee’s strength finally gives way, the droid has a clear shot on her. The minigun spins up and the pods line up. The crowd cover their eyes, not wanting to see an eleven year-old spattered all over the arena.(At least, not again!) –The judges jam down on the kill switch and the robot cuts out. – The crowd are unsure if this is a result of the damage Bee has done or the remote restraining bolt. A ripple of applause becomes a flood. Bee takes a bow, and manages to stride purposefully out of the area.
The final scene is a desk with a microphone on it. From out of shot comes a perfect pair of lips, expertly covered in ‘kiss me now’ lipstick in a very daring shade of red. [1]
A silky seductive, smooth sensuous and deliciously sexy voice says, “We’ll break…. for lunch!”
The lips disappear. Still out of shot, Miss Hathaway says, “Mister Scott, are you wearing my lipstick….Again?”