Pemily Stallwark had her overnight bag all packed and loaded into her special one person spaceship. She was planning on spending the holiday with her mentor and friend, Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars; after Pemily had made mention to him of not having any family left to share Christmas with, Nevada had paused, then awkwardly and haltingly mentioned that she could, you know, if she wanted to she, she could certainly come visit, since things were sure to be quite and she might get bored by herself on the Moon. She certainly wasn't about to pass up the chance to see Nevada and Croach again, so she eagerly said yes and immediately made preparations to spend the day off-satellite.
Dolores County had helped her pack earlier that day, and had promised that she would handle any emergencies that came up. Since it was Christmas, it was sure to be a quiet day on the Moon. Even ruffians and outlaws usually wanted to spend the day celebrating holiday with their families. Anything that was sure to turn up would be minor enough that the deputy could handle by herself.
Since the colonies on all the planets and satellites had different measurements for days, months, and years due to their distinct orbits around the sun, the USSA had decided that the entire galaxy would comply to the standard Earth calendar, with one day being measured in approximately 24 Earth hours, no matter how many times the sun rose and set in that time period. This allowed for much easier coordination for the many families who were spread out on various colonies and USSA missions to be able to come together and celebrate special occasions.
Dolores had been called out a few minutes prior to Pemily's planned departure, on a call of some chaos occurring in the settlement. Assured that her deputy could handle it, Pemily finished gathering her items and stepped out the door of the marshal station, ready to board her ship. To her horror, she saw that what was plaguing the settlement was one of the robots which had been used on the fields of the Punishment Soccer she had won only a few years back. Those particular robots were supposed to have been powered down, stripped, and melted for scrap metal once the Punishment Soccer had been abolished by Cactoid Jim, but apparently the team in charge of that process had missed one.
As much as Pemily wanted to spend the holiday on Mars, she knew that this was a job that would be extremely hard, if not impossible for Dolores to take care of without the expertise from Pemily's own Punishment Soccer game. The marshal rushed back inside, grabbed her fighting gear, and ran to her deputy's aid.
Once she approached the settlement, she could see that several of the citizens had already evacuated, but there were still more to get out. Pemily immediately started giving directions to a girl about her age, telling her to start gathering everyone she could find and taking them around the backs of the buildings to avoid fire from the robot. She knew that if the robot had a clear target in front of it, it would focus only on eliminating that before moving on to the next one; that was just how it was programmed.
Tall and cylindrical with spider-like legs, the robot was trying to get a lock on Dolores, who was dodging back and forth between buildings to stay out of the machine's sight. Designed to fit into the ground of the field during the Punishment Soccer, the robot would pop up during lulls and attempt to make the game more exciting by forcing the competitors to dodge its attacks. Equipped with very little A.I., the machine knew only to destroy. It came with only three weapons: laser beams, small bombs which caused a shock wave strong enough to knock anyone off of their feet, and small metal discs which citizens of Earth called "ninja stars". Any of the three could be lethal if caught at the wrong moment, meaning that this foe would take some work to bring down.
"Dolores!" she called, trying to get her deputy's attention so could tell her the plan.
Startled, Dolores peaked out from behind the saloon. "Marshal Stallwark! Aren't you supposed to be heading to Mars? Why are you here? I can handle this guy."
"Dolores, this is a Punishment Soccer robot! It won't go down easily. In fact, we're going to have to literally take it down. If it's locked on a target in front, it won't turn around and fire until the first one is eliminated! That's how the people are getting out of here! I can distract it long enough for you to sneak around behind the robot and tackle it to the ground. It will be much easier to handle from there."
"Are you sure, Marshal? It's already locked on me; don't you think I should keep distracting it while you take it down?"
"I told you, Dolores, this is a Punishment Soccer robot. I know how to handle it. Now go!"
As soon as Dolores took off behind the saloon, Pemily took a deep breath and readied her blaster. It likely wouldn't do much good, but she felt better holding it in her hand. She knew that just dodging around behind buildings like her deputy had done might lead the robot to believe that it had lost the target, so stepping out in the open was her best bet to give Dolores time.
During the Punishment Soccer, these robots were one of the most feared things of the game. If you had an alliance formed in the game, you could use that to your advantage and team up to try and take it down, but if you were on your own, you could only hope that another team took care of it first or it claimed another participant's life before yours. Facing this monster was a huge slap in the face to Pemily, who had managed to get past the traumatic experience of Punishment Soccer and all the bloodlust she had left over afterwards. But if she didn't confront this looming beast now, people could die, and what kind of Marshal would she be then? Not one that she could be proud of or that people could trust, and certainly not the one that Sparks Nevada knew she could be.
As she stepped out into the middle of the street, the robot took approximately two seconds to lock onto its unmoving target and began firing with all it had. Strangely, Pemily's body still had the pattern of its attacks memorized. Duck, roll, dodge, dodge, kick, duck, spin, kick, spin, crouch, forward roll," she thought, almost as if she was rehearsing one of those elaborate ballets she had always been fascinated with. Each laser bullet, bomb, and star that came her way was dodged or reflected by her as they came. After a few attacks, Pemily realized that the blaster, which she had not possessed during the
Punishment Soccer, could be used to destroy the ninja stars before they reached her, allowing her to dodge everything else much more quickly. It seemed that the attacks were increasing their speed, too, so this became a great asset while she waited for Dolores to make her move.
Suddenly, with lasers firing everywhere and bombs that Pemily had kicked away exploding in the distance, she heard a "Hiiiiiyaaah!" followed by Dolores' legs wrapping around the center of the robot. The deputy used her momentum from a high jump to spin the robot around and propel it to the floor. Pemily quickly rushed to the robot and lassoed the robots legs. The lasso wasn't like Nevada's special one, nor did she have his proficiency in it, but she was coming along quite nicely and knew she could hold the legs just long enough.
"Quick! There's a deactivation switch on the back! Flip it now!" she screamed as she ran toward the robot, still dodging the few laser bullets it managed to shoot off at her.
Suddenly, the robots legs stopped twitching, and Dolores jumped up from behind it. "We did it Marshal!" she yelled, clearly relieved. She watched as Pemily opened the panel on the back and proceeded to rip out the wiring from inside it.
"There, it shouldn't be able to bother anyone no more," Pemily said wearily. "Thank you, Deputy."
"No, thank you, Marshal. You helped save the town instead of heading off to your vacation. I greatly appreciate your help."
Pemily Stallwark smiled. "Well, I figured you could use my Punishment Soccer expertise to take it down. Besides, I doubt Marshal Nevada would be very pleased with me if he found out I'd just abandoned my post like that, even if it was to visit him."
"Well," Dolores said, glancing around at the town around them. "I think we can clean up from here if you'd like to go ahead and take your leave."
Pemily shook her head. "No, I'll stay and help. It's late anyways, and there's a lot to do. Croach and Nevada will understand. I can always try visiting them on the next holiday." She began calling out to the townsfolk, making sure those who were injured received aid and those who weren't began to immediately help clean up.
Several hours later, as Pemily and Dolores returned to the marshal station, Pemily noticed that a small brown package and a letter had been left in her name. The box contained a tiny red rock attached to a hook. The letter was from Sparks Nevada, to her delight.
Dear Pemily, it read,
I heard about what happened on the moon today. Real sorry you didn't get a chance to come down to Mars, (here Mars was crossed out and replaced by "Galoot Proktaw in shaky handwriting, Croach must have sent the letter off and corrected the Marshal without his permission) but I'm proud of you. You'll have lot of chance to come down and celebrate Christmas with us, so don't worry.
I have a tradition in my family; since we were on the move so much when I was a kid, you know, due to both my parents being USSA agents, we would always collect a small piece of rock from each planet, and every year, we would place the rock on our Christmas tree. My mother said it was a reminder of where we'd been and all the places we've yet to go in life. I thought you might like the tradition yourself, and I've enclosed a piece of Martian rock to remind you of your time as my deputy. Whether you carry on the tradition or not, I want you to know that I'm proud of you and I know you have the makings of a great marshal.
Sincerely,
Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars.
Pemily pulled the rock out and held it in her hand for a minute, contemplating how far she'd come in her life. She'd survived the dreaded Punishment Soccer and had even lived to see it abolished, beaten her demons, served as Deputy on Mars, and was now Marshal on the Moon. Nevada was right, she had fire and determination in her, and wouldn't stop until the Moon was a safe place for all.
Neither she nor Dolores had thought about putting up a Christmas tree in the Marshal Station, so Pemily placed the ornament on the small plastic plant she kept on her desk. Rubbing fondly one last time, she began to head off to her room in the back of the Marshal Station, but not before whispering, "Merry Christmas, Nevada."