Beachhead, Cerulean, Small IslandAfter hitting the beach with my companions, we quickly organised task forces. Alpha Squad was with me, aimed at finding some way to take out all the bots at once, while Beta Squad would form a distraction.
We hid in some bushes while they ran off down the beach, each member told to fire one shot from their pistol as they went. This drew off half of the Bots and opened up a lane to a small building for us to take refuge in. Around the outside were a set of ladders. We sprinted into the building and found ourselves facing a group of bots looking right at us. John, a smaller boy to my left, fired his pistol into two of them, blowing their 'head' off and stopping them completely. This left us with two more, and we all wanted to save ammo. We ran back outside and up a ladder, putting us onto the roof. The bots had called for help and had us surrounded. We did what we could, but the ones that had went off after Beta came back.
"Gimme your pistol," I said to Amber, a female recruit and one that was slightly taller that I was, and she gave it to me. With one pistol in one hand and one in another, I shot at an air release valve ((think a chimney)) that I thought led into the complex until it came apart. I slid down the chute, not knowing were I was going until I reached a section of horizontal tubing. Through a vent I could make out the shap of two people, a Guy with a Girl. They were speaking to each other. "How many do you think will make it out of this?" said the first to the second.
"Not many. Those bots are new, with better hunt-seek programming."
"Still... these kids are supposed to be the future. They're the next generation of Spartans."
"Not what I've heard- someone top level is supposed to be making up a new Spartan program, one with more kids than the last, one with a higher survival rate."
"Hm. Where'd you hear that?"
"I have my sources."
"Too bad then. Maybe we should just cancel the exercizes and train them how to be regular ODSTs."
"Naw, that'd be funding down the drain. Just because they're in between programs doesn't meen they can't do as good as either one."
"You're right. And to think we were foolish enough to put the 'Off' button right down the hall, in the mess room."
The male figure had turned to the vent with that last sentence. Had I been seen? Probably.
I scuttled down the tubing, looking through each vent for the Mess Hall. No luck, until I came to the largest vent of them all. The room was filled with benches, and had 'Mess Hall' written on the South wall. No doubt. Looking down, I saw a crowd of bots, waiting for some innocent child to pop through the door to turn them off. They were looking in the wrong place. I took off my shirt and ripped it into shreds, then tied it together into a rope. I then tied the shirt-rope to a brace on the side of the tube, and silently took the cover off of the vent.
I lowered myself down into the room the length of the rope, and then came to a stop. I ran out of rope. I cut the rope with my knife, and tried to hit the groud as silently as possible. I wasn't seen nor heard. At a table in the far back, I saw a bright red button, and a few tables in front of that, a smaller grey button. Both were simply labeled 'Robots'. I came up to the first pair of robots and whaked the in the base of their 'head,' right where I knew the cognativtiy cord was. The bump severed the cords.
I knocked out seven more pairs like that, and then realised that they were getting smarter. As time passed, they recognised a presence unlike them a little more. I put one pistol away and brought out the knife. I cut apart the cord of another three.
I now had an opportunity to the red button. I took it at a full sprint, and the bots saw/heard me. I shot apart the rest in the way, and got to the button. Before I hit it, I looked down and saw that it was the 'Base Panic' button. Fooled me. I jumped to another table-bench and shot away at the bots. The commotion brought my comrades down the vent system. From above me, they began to take out bots behind me, and I took the opportunity to get from table to table. I eventually got to the Grey button, marked 'Shut Off' and pressed it. Nothing happened, so I shot at it. The bots stopped after five shots.
The man and the woman came into the Mess hall afterwards, and congradulated me. "That was a very interesting tactic. Through the vent system and then into the Hall from above. The bots didn't see it coming. Very Fox like. Hide in the shadows, then pounce." Said the man. "Yes. The tactic was interesting. Good job. Now could your company go out and gather up your sleeping buddies, please?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Edited by Copaman, 05 January 2007 - 05:15 PM.