Mission on Mars

"Stick to the plan? Are you insane?" I scream over all the shooting and bombs going off in the background.

"No, I'm not. Stay right where you are and shoot when I tell you." Jerry said, back at headquarters. 

At least, that's what I think he said. This darn walkie-talkie is so old my grandfather's great uncle could have played with it as a kid. But, it's the only way we could communicate without the robots hearing our conversations. Our technicians put some kind of special wiring on it so only we would be able to hear it. I had it strapped to my shoulder so it wouldn't get lost in all the chaos.

I guess you might be a bit confused. I don't have a lot of time, so let's go through this quickly, yeah? My name is Rodrick, and I am a defender of Mars. A few years ago NASA discovered life on Mars and created these bots to go find more about the new life. One day during the expectation of the planet, the robots started to attack life on Mars.

No one could stop it so they hired us, the defenders. Basically our job is to defend the Martians from the robots. Putting our life on the front line so others could live. Yeah, never would have thought I would be able to even think about saying that. But here we are… 

"The plan has gone all wrong. If we continue, we are going to fail and die doing it," I say, trying to cover myself behind a block of rubble, shielding me from the robots' sight. 

They look like they bathed in black ink and they shoot this goo. It's not poisonous or anything, just very… disturbing. They use the goo to distract us while they blow out gas from their arm. Now that is poisonous. It kills you in a few hours and gives you a terrible fever. They are known for killing anyone on sight, that's where our number one rule comes in: When you see a robot, they will kill you. So either fight or flee.

"It doesn't- have to- plan just- fire- signal." Jerry said, the reception must be really bad right now.

I got the general message: we're not leaving until these things are dead. I aim my ray gun to scan the view for the 'boss'. Y’know, the guy who planned this whole rebellion.

I don't blame him for causing the rebellion. The boss isn't really at fault here. Why would the government decide to make robots in the first place? Has anyone ever seen the movies? The robots turn on the people. Every. Single. Time. But who watches those anymore? Movies cost a lot now since they’re so old but nobody has time for them. Funny how in the 2000’s things like those were pretty popular. Year 4,000 and all we do is fight robots and move around every couple of years.

Shoot, one of them spotted me. I would be lying if I say that I didn't almost wet my pants. That stare… when their green eyes light up and fix on you. Trust me, you don't want to know the feeling. I quickly dash out of my hiding spot and then I remember. I'm on top of a 10 story building and I have no way of getting down. 

Cue the gasping noises. 

I look around and spot a small panel leading inside the building. Problem is, that's how I got up here and I don't think I want to go through that misery again. Also, Jerry would kill me if I left. Jerry is the most stubborn guy that you'll probably ever meet. When he plans a mission he doesn't abort, no matter what. I take a slow breath and face the robot. Who is now three buildings away. Dang, those things can move.

I raise my gun and point it in his direction. Robots are more advanced, now they even have genders and sometimes can disguise themselves to look exactly like a human. They only do that when they want to spy on us so you can tell that he’s a robot. Jerry is going to kill me when he finds out I used one of his bullets on some robot, but it's a life or death situation. If it were any other gun then it would be fine, too bad it’s Jerry’s favorite and he only gave it for emergencies. Which to him mean, when I’m on the ground bleeding out. I fire and I miss. Just because I'm the best shooter on the team, doesn't mean I can do everything. I'm more of a sniper guy, not a close-range kind of dude. 

Now it's on the rooftop right next to mine.

Well, I'm doomed. Nothing I can do now, I might as well just give up now. The only way to kill those things is to rip out their wires and shoot them at the same time. And I’m not a pro at hand to hand combat, which is why I’m a sniper. The only reason why we’re not doing that to the boss is because NASA engineered a special gun just for the boss. It’s said to be the only thing that can kill him. 

He’s probably already locked unto my body heat and about to fire some kind of super ray at me and kill me. No, I'm not a coward, I just know when things are bound to fail. Which is why I never wanted to go with this plan in the first place. There was always a chance that this plan could go wrong, I tried to tell Jerry to plan it for another day. But as I said, Jerry is the most stubborn guy in the universe.

While I was monologuing my doom, something happened that I would never expect in a million years.

A black figure swooped down right on top of the robot and started shooting it like there's no tomorrow. He punches, kicked, and God-only-knows what else to the robot and it falls to the ground. Then, it exploded. Exactly like in those old movies. When I kill robots all they do is fall on the floor, not with the new guy. He gets a whole show. The figure walked up to me and I raised my gun at him. Even though he just saved my life, I can't trust some random stranger, right?

When he got closer I could see that this character was pretty fit. Judging by the curves of her body, her hair - which was pretty long-, and her outfit, I could tell she was female. When she got up to me, she put her hands up in mock surrender.

"Gee, no thanks for saving your life? All I get is a gun to my chest," she said. 

Her voice startled me; it sounded like silk. Wait- Can you even hear silk? Never mind. 

I wish I could tell you that I said something manly like, "Sorry, we have to be careful around here, you know? You look beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that?" And then I'd flash a very handsome smirk. 

But sadly... I did not.

I probably said something like, "Wha- bua- buba- how did- ois." How embarrassing; I was not used to talking to girls.

She smiled like I did something cute, or I hope that's why she smiled. Before she could respond, there was a blast a few buildings away from us.

The boss. You can’t miss him. Huge robot, about 50 feet tall, with heat guns in his hands. He wasn't in human form at the time and he looked pretty scary in robot mode. Also for some reason, unlike all the other robots, he had red eyes.

I ducked into my position and hoped I'm not too late. This plan was a disaster. We assumed that the boss was a lot smaller than this. The fighters down below were struggling to get him into position. I got my second gun from one of my pockets. I had to aim my ray at the big guy. If I center the gun just right, I should fire at his stomach and he should fall right to his doom. When he’s down, then all the other robots should go down with him. Which was why I was not allowed to fight any robots because they might figure us out, and then all my hard work would be for nothing. But, it's not that easy. I have to be far enough for him not to notice me and close enough so I could make a good shot.

I scanned through all the dust and rubble from all the bombs that were dropping out of the sky from the planes. The boss was still firing at the fighters and setting off large blasts. Which did some serious damage. Buildings started to crumble and fall and some even melted from the heat of the blasts. When I finally spotted the boss, I could see the other human defenders trying to fight him off. The girl was still silent and watched intently at the battle before us.

The radio crackled to life again. "Rick, they’re almost in position where the- where are you?" Jerry asked me. I wish I got a different team leader. Anyone would be better than him. He’s probably still sitting in the plane yelling at all the other fighters before he gets around to yelling at me.

"Right here man, just hold him a little longer while I try to get a good aim," I say, trying to position the gun so I wouldn't kill any of the other guys. I flex my muscles, hoping the girl would at least notice, but her eyes were fixated on the scene ahead. I could see her hands were shaking a bit and she kept on checking her arm for some reason. Who was she?

"Ok, I got a clear shot. Are you ready? You know we could probably abort now. We really shouldn't be doing this," I tell him as I see five more guys drop down dead. I don't care how close we are to defeating this guy, I can already tell that this will end badly. We’ve lost over 100 fighters already. Based on the status report coming over the radio from the plane, we might lose a couple hundred more. The consequences of killing the boss could be extreme but no one is really sure how exactly. And I don’t really want to take that kind of risk.

"The plan is still a go." I tried. 

Jerry is not going to give up, "When you get the shot, fire. Do not hesitate."

I never hesitate. Oops, I must have worded that wrong… I usually hesitate. I know, I’m one of the best but that doesn’t mean I like killing. Even if it's a robot. I’ve learned to switch off my emotions during times like this, so there might be a small chance this could go well and we defeat the boss and the Martians would be safe.

A few seconds tick by and I finally get a clear shot. I don't hesitate (for once) and fire. Suddenly, it was like everything was in slow motion. The beam of light zipped past all the buildings and destruction and hit the boss straight in the chest.

Good news, right? No, of course not. What kind of world do you think I live in?

The thing is, the blast had to be powerful enough to destroy him. Which meant that it was also powerful enough to knock anyone else 150 miles away from the blast. And what do you think happened to us? Oh, nothing much. We just got blasted back 150 miles away.  And let me tell you, it hurt. Everyone else probably shared our same fate, the plane probably would be okay if it wasn't as close as we were. The robots however, I didn't know. Maybe they were still functioning or (and I’m praying this is true) they’re dead.

So, I don’t know exactly what happened but let’s hope that the boss is dead and everything is alright. Now, I have to worry about whether we’ll be okay. While we were flying- no, soaring - I saw that the girl looked pretty scared. And honestly, so was I. But I decided to be a man and I call out something very heroic.

"Everything is going to be alright," I was trying to say, but because of the massive wind blowing in my face, it sounded something like this: 

"Ehhinnn ee goooo eekkk a rooooo"

She looked over at me like I had just lost my mind. Smooooooth Rick, just smooooth, I think to myself, way to impress the lady.

After what seemed like forever, we crashed into one of the safe houses at the far edge of the colony. I didn’t break anything, thankfully, but I did cut my leg pretty badly. The world started to spin for a bit so I waited for things to slow down and I took a good look at my surroundings. 

The place was obviously abandoned and reeked of... you know what? You don't want to know. It could have been worse, so I'm not going to complain. I struggled to get myself out of the pit of slimy stuff, probably dead things, when I realized the girl was gone.

I scrambled out of the weird position I landed in and started to call out. Then I realized I never got her name.

"Umm, Girl? Girl with all black clothes on, weird mask over her face, and really long hair? Is anyone there?" I called out going inside the building.

I heard a grunt coming from one of the rooms with the door blasted off. I slowly made my way inside and saw her on the floor. She looked like she was in pain. I staggered up to her and tried to help her out by moving the debris. That’s when I noticed something shiny coming out of her arm. 

I didn't know what to make of it. I tried to touch it and I got shocked. The thing electrified me. She looked at me with no expression on her face. Like she wasn’t even alive. Then, lo and behold, I put the pieces together. All black, wires, flies out of nowhere, and shocked by electricity.

Mhmm, yup. She’s a robot. 

And you know how robots are so killy killy all the time? Well, there's one right in front of me and I didn't even notice.

At that moment, ladies and gentlemen, I knew…

I’m doomed.