**Action** "let the carnage begin!"

OOC- This is the THIRD time I've sent this- I hope it gets to the
group, beware of 2 other copies that look exactly like this one
coming through your mailbox within the next few weeks! :-)
<<I'm not going to let everyone pass this robot wars competition by
without having a PROPER Fight!!! So I've done this Action to get
people to start writing! Everybody don't start writing about after
the competition just yet, we need to have it first!>>
**Action**
At the robot wars arena
Location: the pits
The cargobay next to the one which held the makeshift arena was used
for the teams to make repairs or last minute additions to their
robots. Several tables were layed out across the room.
Captain Niples and Katrina Swete wheeled their creation into the pits
on a trolley, they lifted the rather small robot up to it's table.
The spike had been removed to make it easier to carry, so it now
needed to be reattached.
"Boy, it sounds like the crowd out there are getting restless!" said
Katrina, motioning to the cargobay door. The shouts and screems of
blood thirsty robot wars fans echoed around the arena.
On a nearby table, Phil stood polishing his creation. It looked so
nice it could probably sparkle the oponents to death, Niples wondered
if he should just back out now so that all the hard work they'd put
into Nemesis wouldn't be wasted when they ended up with a crumbled
mass of smoldering metal.
Kayn wheeled his robot (or die trying) back into the pits, he's just
been taking part in the pinball challenge- and by the look of the
smile on his face, he'd got a pretty good score.
katrina passed Seymour the screwdriver and he screwed Nemisis' spike
on firmly. They both looked proudly at their creation.
Now they were ready.
***Pinball challenge***
Seymour stpped up to the flight control centre overlooking the arena
below, this would be where he was going to control his robot from.
The crowd cheered just because they were hyped up already.
The klaxon went and the timer started. Seymour held the control pad
in his hand and moved the levers with his thumbs, expecting Nemesis
to zoom around the arena and knock down as many barrels as it could.
But it moved very very slowly.
"What's wrong?" asked Katrina
"theres a problem, I think the drive belt's gone or something.... or
it could be the barreries- you did charge them didn't you?"
Katrina's eyes glazed over.
"Erm..... was I supposed to?"
"Oh dear...."
Nemesis crawled slowly towards a pile of barrels, if it knocked one
over it wouldn't be too bad. The robot slowed down even more, and
just knocked the pile as it stopped dead.
"I'm really sorry" said katrina, hoping that Seymour could forgive
her. "Are you mad?"
He looked at her, he looked into her eyes, he could see the innocence
that she didn't mean to do anything wrong. He saw that she wouldn't
do anything deliberately to make him mad."
"Of course I'm not mad" Seymour laughed as he hugged her tightly. "It
was a mistake, that's all. We can get the batteries charged ready for
the next battle."
That is, if they survived the pinball challenge....
Dead Metal, the scorpion shaped house robot moved towards Nemesis,
gripping it in it's strong front claws. The scorpian tail with a
circular spinning blade came down and cut a neat split in the robot's
eye hump. A small amount of red fluff went flying.
Next came in Sir Killalot, the huge robot with a claw-arm and
lance. "This is going to be nasty!" shouted Smegg who was
commentating the battle.
Seymour held Katrina against him, "Don't look, it could be gruesome!"
But the timer stopped just before killalot could pick up the small
powerless robot. They were safe for now.
The rest of the pinball matches followed.
<<Everyone else write what happens to your own robot in the pinball
challenge. As long as you beat the score of 0, then you've beat
Nemesis!!!>>
***In the pits***
Seymour took the fur coated shell from the robot and located the
battery. Katrina gave him the power lead and he plugged it in.
"Are you sure we are allowed to be using this?" she asked him.
"Don't worry, I'm the captain- if I want to use the Blue Dwarf's
emergency power cells to charge up my robot then I'm sure no-one else
will mind." said Seymour, hoping that his display of recklessness
will impress Katrina. He was actually going to tell Smegg to
replenish the BD's power cells after the match- just in case they had
an emergency and needed those few extra watts he'd just stolen.
Dren Walker walked up to him wearing his showbiz suit and supporting
a microphone. A TV camera followed him around. Walker's job was to
interview the contestants, he had seemed a bit miffed that he wasn't
chosen to host the show- instead they'd got a liverpudlian nobody
from the Red Dwarf to do it. Dren wasn't sure why.
"So Captain......" he said in his showbiz voice. "After your last
performance, do you think you've got a chance against an opponent?
Last time you couldn't even kill any barrels!" Dren winked at the
camera.
Captain Niples didn't like the tone of the man. He snatched the
microphone off of him and faced the camera, looking right at the
people who were watching in their quarters, or in the pub.
"We've charged the batteries fully, we're ready as we'll ever be."
Dren took the mic back.
"And what weapons do you have?"
Seymour let Katrina take the limelight now, she seemed a little
nervous in front of the camera. "We have a retractable spike... "and
then she said something that people have been saying on robot wars
for over a century. "We're hoping will do some DAMAGE!!!!"
***The Heats***
The battles commenced, the robots went on head to head against each
other. (OOC- I've tried to make it easier to write this by just
putting 2 robots rather than three together. Everyone can post their
battles separately.)
The listings for the first round were:
Armorzilla v Ointmentator II
Black Box v kamikaze
The Swarm v Or Die Trying
Nemesis v Schwebeller
Recon Drone v Antibot
Nemesis was drawn up against Joe Schweeble's robot Schweebler. The
two robots were positioned in the arena facing each other. Niples
could feel the sweat forming on his brow as the crowd cheered. They
supported their captain fully, but nevertheless would like nothing
more than to see their Commanding officer's creation get pummelled
into oblivion.
Katrina mopped his brow and gave him a kiss on the cheek for good
luck. Dave Lister stood on a balcony overlooking the battleground and
announced the competitors. The call was given to start.
"3...2...1...ACTIVATE!" the sound went.
Nemesis shot out of it's starting position, the batteries were
obviously working fully. Katrina did a little dance to celebrate the
fact.
The schweebler stayed still, on the defensive watching what Seymour
did next.
Nemisis came round the inside of Schweebler, but he was ready. The
furred machine hit the front of the Schweebler with a clang of metal-
muffled slightly by the furry Nemesis material. Nemesis spun, and
tried to get some space between the robots, the scweebler followed
closely behind. Schweeble's robot was faster and caught up as Nemesis
ducked and dived around the arena.
It caught Nemesis, and pushed it against the wall. The retractable
spinning spikes on the wall shreadded nemesis' shroud, but caused
minimal damage.
Nemesis spun, allowing the spike to catch Schweebler's hull- making a
few superficial scratches, but the metal plating didn't come loose.
Nemesis moved again, while Schweeble was recovering from the minor
battering.
Nemesis moved in to the centre and stopped, turning to cast it's
stick-on googly eyes on it's opponent.
The schweebler turned and revved up, like a bull preparing to charge.
It charged.
Nemesis stood it's ground, spike pointed directly at the other robot.
The schweebler hit the spike, and kept on going- pushing Nemesis all
the way into the CPZ (corner patrol zone) where the house robot Sgt
Bash was waiting anxiously.
"It's a good job Nemisis' material is flame reisist-" Katrina started
to say.
Sgt Bash turned it's flame thrower on Nemesis. The flame covered the
small furry robot as if it was magnetically attracted to it.
As the smoke cleared, the audience could see that Nemesis was on fire-
rather heavily.
"-ant." finished Katrina, and added "or maybe not!"
Nemesis wheeled around the arena, it's flammable skin and wooden
shell structure collapsing under the heat.
As the firemen came in to extinguish Nemesis, there wasn't much left.
Seymour sighed. They walked out of the control booth and onto the
balcony where Dave Lister stood, overlooking the arena. Joe
Schweeble, pilot of the other robot joined him.
"Well- that was definately hot stuff!" Lister exclaimed, turning to
Seymour and Katrina.
"Oh well, bad luck you guys. Have you had a good time on the Blue
Dwarf's first ever robot wars?"
Seymour and Katrina chorused "Yes" and even agreed to come back next
year with a better robot. After that, Lister turned to Schweeble and
did a celebratory cheer.
"How does it feel to have won the Captain? Did you expect to get this
far? Do you think you can go all the way?" are a few of the standard
questions he asked.
***Semi-finals**
Here are the winners of the first heats, and the battles to take
place in the semi-finals.
Armorzilla v kamikaze
Antibot v Schwebeller
Temptation v Or Die Trying
***Final***
Kamikazi v Antibot v Or Die Trying
<<OK, over to everyone. I hope everyone writes about the battles
taking place.>>
==================================
Lt. Cmdr David "Onion" Ball
Assistant Helm officer/ Pilot USS Endeavour-A
Captain Seymour Niples JMC Blue Dwarf
WWW.Home.JMCBlueDwarf.com
==================================