Jolo put a bullet through the camera eye and waited. “Might want to take a few more steps back,” he said to Merthon. “They usually have a few mechs in a listening station.”
Suddenly out of either side of the tower, two armed hover bots popped out. They both had laser weapons that couldn’t pierce the hull of the smallest of boats, but could cut a man, even in Fed issue battle gear, in half. The bots gained altitude, found their target and quickly descended on Jolo. He jumped, and before they could change trajectory, shot one down. The other backed off quickly, but then came a loud BOOM as Merthon took a shot with Betsy. The bot zoomed high and headed away from the tower.
“What’d you do that for?” said Jolo. “Marco’s gonna be pissed at me if you get yourself killed. Now that little bot is gonna come back from God knows where and try to take out the biggest gun.” Merthon made a little squeak noise and started running around in the dark. But there was nowhere to hide. “Relax,” said Jolo. “I’ll take it out. But now you’re gonna have to stand next to me because—” But he didn’t get the last word out. A round, metal flash came hurtling in from behind them, a tiny red laser line extending down to the ground was cutting a path straight for Merthon.
Jolo knew he only had one shot. He led the fast moving piece of metal and fired, the bullet tearing through the bot’s covering just above the red dot that marked the laser emitter. It went off course and bounced off the ground out of sight.
Merthon picked himself up and brushed the sand off his sleek hydration suit. Jolo stood in front of the door with his head tilted to one side. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. Why couldn’t they just have two warriors inside like usual, he thought. Merthon stood beside him and for a moment there was silence.
Then from the other side they heard a door opening and a rumbling sound. A large metal ball, about as tall as Jolo, rolled out from an opening on the back side. It stopped and suddenly four legs popped out, raising the metal body taller than a warrior, and it started walking. Jolo could see the red ocular lens on the front and just above that, a small cover opened and out popped a gun turret. It took aim at Jolo and he jumped out of the way, faster than the machine anticipated. The shot missed and Merthon ran to the side, keeping the tower between him and the bot.
Jolo fired off a few shots. Each bullet bounced off with no damage to the mechanical beast. The cannon was now fully extended and mounted on a 360 degree swivel. It started tracking immediately. Jolo knew it would find his heat signature and if the monster got one shot on him there’d be nothing left. He landed near the back side and noticed the tower door was still open. He dove inside just as the bot located him. It took another shot and destroyed the corner of the door. Jolo landed inside, slid across a smooth floor and pressed his body against the wall. He could feel heat coming up from the floor and hoped this would hide him. There were no other doors to escape through. Nothing in the room except the listening station computer.
The bot’s round metal body came into view through the broken door. It stopped and the big gun swung around instantly. Jolo figured this was the end, but then it rose a little taller and the red ocular receptor swung around to its left. Suddenly Jolo heard the sound of two small thrusters at full tilt and with a loud crunch the bot was gone. Katy had run it down with the Scout.
He jumped out of the tower and found the big ball thirty meters off, the cannon laying near by in the sand. The eye was still red, but the bot was no longer round. The Scout was on its side in the dirt, the nose dented. Jolo opened the hatch and found Katy shaken, but fine.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No worries. Gonna be a long walk home.”
Merthon gleefully finished off the wounded bot with one shot from Betsy. And then they all went into the tower.
“This is it?” said Katy. “Just a listening station computer.”
“There must be more,” said Merthon. “And why protect the thing with bots?”
“We should have expected that, I suppose,” said Jolo. “Think about how many of the dang towers there are. Do they have that many worms? Bots make more sense.” Katy tried to access the computer but there was no keyboard, no input method she could find. Merthon was running his long fingers along the smooth wall on the other side.
Jolo got down on his knees and felt the floor. It was hot. And there was a noise. “You guys hear that?” said Jolo.
Katy and Merthon shook their heads, no. “Jolo, your hearing is quite good,” Merthon said.
“Dog good?” said Katy. Merthon smiled.
“Jolo,” Merthon said. “Stop and concentrate on the source of the sound. Focus and you’ll hear it more clearly. Just focus on it.”
