A Fistful of Trouble (Outlaws of the Galaxy Book 2) Paul Tomlinson (reading strategies book .TXT) 📖

Danny and I were standing in the middle of the Colonel’s lawn. All around us, the fallen robots were beginning to stir. This was not a good thing.

“We’re scracked,” Danny said.

“Get back in the Trekker,” I said.

“I’m not leaving you.”

That wasn’t what I had in mind, but it was sweet that he thought I could be so heroic as to make a lone stand.

“Call Harmony and find out where the hell she is,” I said.

There was a sound over to the east. An aircraft.

“Is that the Colonel?” Deke asked, pointing.

It wasn’t Colonel Hodge. But it was his freighter-cum-gunship. Harmony was riding to the rescue. At the last possible minute. She certainly knew how to make an entrance.

“I told you she’d be back,” Danny said. “What’s she doing?”

I thought the freighter was damaged. Its progress was slow and erratic. It tipped down on the left and then overcompensated, dipping down even further on the right.

“I think she lied about being able to fly one of those,” I said.

“No wonder she’s late,” Danny said.

The freighter was lower than even Casey had dared to fly it. It passed over the top of the hill, slicing off the tops of the trees and then setting fire to what was left with its exhaust.

“Do you think she knows the landing gear is still down?” Danny asked.

One of the legs clipped the front wall of the Colonel’s mansion, sending part of the brickwork tumbling to the ground.

“She’s going to kill us all!” I said. I gave serious thought to blowing her out of the sky with the cannon before she got close enough to crash into us. It might be better to take our chances with the robots.

“What’s going to happen when she opens fire?” Danny asked.

“Everyone take cover!” I yelled. They didn’t need much urging from me.

Danny and I dropped to the ground and crawled under the Trekker.

As the people scattered, the robots climbed to their feet and retrieved their weapons.

Harmony came in too fast, overshooting the front lawn. I heard several cries of relief.

“She’s coming round again!” Deke shouted.

“Who’s side are they on?” someone else shouted. Good question, I thought.

Harmony’s first shots just sent divots of grass flying into the air. On the next pass, a few of the high-calibre shells hit robots. There was no targeting here, no finesse, she was spraying the ground with bullets like water from a hosepipe. Some robots were hit, but the shots weren’t fatal. Others were ‘killed’ multiple times. It was ugly and clumsy, but it was getting the job done.

Danny crawled out from under the Trekker, taking the cannon from me. He braced himself against the side and fired at a couple of the robots that Harmony had only winged. Teamwork, that had been the original plan. We got there in the end. I just hoped we weren’t too late.

“On your right,” I warned, crawling out and standing beside Danny.

Danny turned and fired. The shot exploded the robot’s chest and sent its head flying into the air. There was a cheer from the crowd behind us. It seemed like everyone was getting behind us now.

Harmony banked sharply, coming round for another strafing run. She hit three robots this time. I wasn’t sure what our total was up to now. There still seemed to be a lot of them on their feet and they were armed.

A missile flew over our heads and struck one of the robots. Its chest exploded in a shower of sparks and head and limbs flew outwards in different directions. Another cheer from the crowd. I glanced back. One of the mercenaries was loading another grenade into the launcher. I hoped he had defected because we were looking like the winning side.

“We need to find the one with the red stripe,” I said to Danny.

“I don’t see him.”

Harmony passed over again. The sound of high-calibre rounds thudding into robots had a sort of music to it. If you liked your tunes heavy on percussion.

“There!” I said, pointing.

Red-Stripe was sitting quietly on an iron bench under one of the Colonel’s trees. It looked like it was lost in its own thoughts – which it was in a way. It was analysing data from the remaining robots and running simulations to test various strategies.

Danny braced himself and fired. Kept firing. He was too far away to get a good shot. A couple of the other robots sensed the danger to their leader and came towards us. Another robot went towards Red-Stripe – maybe it intended to use its own body as a shield.

One of Danny’s shots hit the tree, splintering its trunk. The tree seemed to fold, falling forwards. The tree came down on top of the robot and the bench. The red-striped head was crushed down into the robot’s body. I saw sparks spit out from its armpits in the moment before the robot and the iron bench were completely flattened into scrap.

The damage to Red-Stripe must have been fatal because all of the other remaining robots suddenly sagged a little. Having lost contact with the A.I. that had been directing them, they were switching over to internal control. They were now effectively autonomous, obeying pre-programmed instructions that probably said something as basic as ‘keep shooting the enemy.’

I could see five robots left standing. And they seemed to have identified Danny and me as the enemy. We were the ones with the big gun standing beside a military-style vehicle, I suppose.

Danny looked like he was having trouble holding the cannon up. I reached to take it from him.

“Get down!” Danny warned.

We both dropped to the ground as Harmony came in low – probably lower than she’d intended. We rolled under the Trekker again as a twin line of bullet hits raced across the grass towards the robots. The robots decided that Harmony was now the enemy and aimed their rifles upwards.

Shots rained down almost vertically on the robots. One of them was hit on the top of its head and its face