The Orphan Rebels Part 6.
Opening Scene: Liberation Campaign
Since there was no way the kids could turn off all the robots control collars at once, they had to do it manually, one by one.
So far, the robots they came with and the robots from the prison were free.
Now, they had to go floor by floor through this mining facility to free each robot. Right away they encountered a group of hauler bots, each carrying a delicate case of mined stellarite.
“Wait! Stop!” Yelled Brock. “Stand still so we can get those collars off!”
Leesa used her knife to pry apart the panels of the collar so griff could rip out the wires and de-activate them that way.
Meanwhile, Servo-7 and the other bots would carefully grip the collars and crush them quickly, ripping them in half. Their group of freed bots grew larger and larger as they freed more worker bots and those bots freed more bots.
And all the while the BURROWS bots were exploding from all around them as they rushed through the facility. Some would remain in snake-bot form, whipping their bodies from wall to wall smashing whatever was in their way. Most of the Burrows bots would transform out of their snake form and into a more human-looking bot form to fight the kids and the freed bots.
The battle was intense and as they moved further into the facility, the Burrows bots seemed to know exactly where they were going to be. They were heading them off at every turn, sending the kids retreating to find new ways to more robots still collared.
“We can’t keep this up.” Brock said finally. “There are too many of those snake-bots and they know where we are. They can sense us moving through the facility.”
“There’s a storage hold up ahead.” said one of the newly freed bots. “We can re-group there.”
“We might need to call Alice for some back-up.” suggested Griff.
They all followed the bot to a huge storage room. Boxes stacked up twenty feet high full of supplies and mining gear. Rows and rows of crates towered above them from wall to wall. The group gathered in the center of the room.
“Okay listen,” began Brock. “We’re gonna need to call in support from our ship. I didn’t want to have to do that but we’re up against it here. I’ll call Alice and… Griff?... Are you listening?”
Griff was staring off into space. He seemed completely out of it.
“I don’t think we’re gonna need to call Alice.” he said.
“What? Griff What’re you talking about?” Leesa shouted.
“I think I’m in love.” he said.
Finally they all looked in the direction of Griff’s gaze to see three huge Mech Suits lined up along one wall. These were like big robot frames humans were intended to climb into. Each one had a robot hand and a mining drill for a hand and had two huge robot feet and a reinforced glass cockpit for the human operator.
“I wanna get in that.” Griff said.
He and the two other kids ran to the mechs and they each climbed in one. Brock and Leesa first watched Griff so they knew which switches and buttons turned the thing on. Soon they were strapped securely in these big mechs, practicing the controls, moving the arms around.
“Ha!” yelled Brock excitedly. “Maybe we don’t need to call Alice for backup after all!”
Before they could figure out their next move a group of BURROWS bots burst through the stone wall on the other side of the room.
The freed robots spun around and scattered among the boxes and crates in the storage area. And it was a good thing they did because Leesa, wild with excitement at being in a super-powerful mech suit, screamed a battle cry and rage-stomped her mech across the storage room to crush the burrowing snake bots.
“Yeeeaaarrrgghh!!!” she yelled. “Destroy!!!!!”
Some of the snake bots didn’t even have time to transform into their human-bot forms before Leesa grabbed them and crushed them or stomped them. The last one standing Leesa grabbed with her robot mech hand, lifted up into the air and drilled right through it with the drill attached to the other arm on the mech suit.
Brock and Griff came up on either side of Leesa who was sweating and panting, her eyes wide.
“Hey Lees… you okay?” Brock asked her.
“Yeah man you, you kinda went crazy there for a second…” Griff added.
Leesa took some deep breaths and centered herself. “Yeah… Yeah I’m okay I think… I was just… you know… just working through some stuff I guess.”
“Okay. I get that.” said Brock. “Do you want to take a minute?”
“No. I’m good.” she said.
“Okay then. Do you wanna work through some stuff some more? Maybe take care of these guard bots and the burrows bots so the others can remove some collars?” Brock asked.
Lisa smiled. “Yeah. Yeah I think crushing some bad bots would make me feel even better.”
And so it went. Brock, Griff, and mostly Leesa pounded through the facility in their new drilling mech suits, just absolutely crushing any evil guard bots they came across.
They went floor by floor, the kids out in front dealing with the guard bot and the Burrows Bots. Using their new mech drilling suits to crush the opposition.
And behind them, the freed robots would free more and more robots ripping off their control collars. After hours of this Brock spoke to the others through the comms of the mech suit.
“Okay… Okay… Look, I don’t think we’re going to get through this entire facility.” he said. “The batteries on these units is getting low and…”
Servo-7 rushed up to his side and interrupted him. “We can go. There are enough freed robots now to defeat the remaining guards units.”
The freed miner bots around them agreed. There were hundreds by now.
“We will go back to the ship with you to see who else wants to stay here and who wants to continue on with us.” Servo finished.
Brock nodded. There was no time for goodbyes. They wished the others luck and rushed back to the ship. Servo-7, Industrial-23, HeavyLift-12, and Maintenance-5 joined the kids and they all reached the Stellar Harvester back out in the jungle.
The drilling mech suits barely fit up the loading ramp and they stored them in the cargo hold of the ship before reporting to Alice on the bridge.
She was surrounded by the remaining bots and Brock quickly explained their situation.
“So, that’s that. The facility is under bot control, or it will be soon anyway.” Brock turned to the rest of the bots on the Stellar Harvester. “You all need to decide right now. Do you stay here and start a robot colony or continue on with us. It’s your decision.”
The bots looked around at each other and all of them nodded to the kids and to Alice and left the ship. All but the four bots they went into the facility with.
“Alright so… Servo, Industrial, Heavy, and Maintenance, you four are staying with us?” Leesa asked.
The bots all four nodded.
“Okay well, if we’re going to continue as a team you’re gonna need new names.” Leesa said. “What do you want your names to be?”
The digital process in each bot whirred and beeped as they asked themselves a question that they had never asked themselves before. A name. A real name that they gave themselves.
“I want to be Bone Crusher Five Thousand.” said HeavyLift-12.
“Bone Crusher Five Thousand… that’s… intimidating.” said Griff. “You mind if we call you Crusher for short.”
The bot nodded.
“Bone Crusher Five Thousand is a cool name… I want a cool name like that… I will be Ripper Fist One Million.” said Industrial-23.
“Ripper Fist One Mill… Okay. I mean that’s fine and everything. It’s your name but… Can we call you Ripper for short?” asked Brock.
The robot nodded.
“I will be Servo.” said Servo-7.
“And I will be Poop.” said Maintenance-5.
“...I’m sorry did you just say ‘poop’? You want your name to be ‘poop’?” Leesa asked.
“Yes. Poop is funny. My name will be Poop.” said… Poop.
“Okay… Just to clarify it’s like, whenever we refer to you we’re going to be like, “Oh hey Poop, can you hand me that digital welder? Thanks Poop.”... and that’s what you want?” Brock asked.
“Yes. I will be Poop. It will be funny.” said Poop.
The kids knew that robots could have personalities and preferences but they had never known of a bot to have such a childish sense of humor.
“Okay, well, if you ever want to change your name just let us know.” said Leesa.
“I will not change my name. I will be Poop forever. It will be funny.” said Poop.
They turned to see Griff, rolling on the floor laughing. “Ha! Poop forever! Ah, you guys are the best. Let’s go run diagnostics and get you repaired while Alice gets us outta here.”
Griff and the bots went back to the maintenance room for repairs and Alice started the ship. As they lifted off from the jungle planet they could see a stream of the robots running toward the mining facility. Running toward their future here on this planet.
And soon they were out in the stars. Blasting off to the next leg of their mission.
The Orphan Rebels had evolved from a rescue mission into something bigger - a robot liberation network that was just getting started.
The End