"What do you plan to do with that thing again?" Ace hissed at Katie.
"Look, it's got a charge. Easiest way to do anything to a robot is give it the short circuit."
"I don't think it's got enough charge; those things are enormous!"
"Could you both be quiet?" the Doctor said, studying the metal giants through binoculars, trying to think of something.
Katie and Ace exchanged looks. "How tight?" Katie asked. The Doctor looked quizzically at her, but Katie wasn't paying him any attention.
"Pretty tight," Ace said, somehow understanding the question.
"Anticipation of shots?"
"Well-honed."
"Accuracy?"
"Same."
Katie reached into her bag and produced a large gun. The Doctor was starting to wonder how she could fit so much in that bag. Katie held the gun proudly.
"Acid tip, cable seventy five."
"Zapper?"
"Button on the end," Katie said, handing her the silver tube. Ace checked it and stuck the tube in an easy-to-reach spot on her bike, then got on it herself. "We'll be behind."
"Check." Ace put her helmet on. The Doctor started to protest, but Ace took off.
"Ace! Ace what the hell are you doing!" he called after her. Katie held up a hand to stop him.
"Chill Prof. She knows what she's up to." Katie started jogging down the hill after her. She beckoned to the Doctor. "Come on! We'll need you for the surgery."
The Doctor and Katie arrived at the bottom of the hill just in time to witness the entire scene. Ace was driving at top speed, so fast they could hardly see her. She was weaving in and out of the legs of one of the first two robots. They hardly even seemed to notice her, simply continuing their job of mining. A moment later, something small and bright flashed, landing solidly in the right leg of the giant. Ace began going around the legs rather than in between them, making the circle tight. In a matter of seconds, the chosen beast fell while trying to step forward. Ace jammed the silver tube Katie had given her into the metal man's neck joint and pressed the button.
"That's our cue!" Katie called out as she drew yet another fairly large weapon, running towards Ace. The Doctor came dashing behind, finally understanding what Katie and Ace had set up. Ace had used a harpoon of some form attached to a cable to trip up one of the monsters and used electrocution to disable it. It was now up to him to pry the chest open somehow to see how it worked. From there they could make another plan. It was a brilliant scheme.
For five seconds.
The creature Ace had forced down gave a shudder, and sat back up again. Using a circular saw blade deployed from its arm, it cut the cable, getting back on its own two feet. The other two giants hadn't noticed a thing, or weren't reacting. The target, however, seemed rather upset to have been forced to the ground. It started firing from its mining laser at Ace, who rolled smartly out of the way. Katie took a shot at the robot with her energy cannon.
"Hey, bongo! Why don't you try eating someone you already don't like?"
The robot turned to face the new threat. It took a split second to scan Katie and the Doctor when a red light started flashing from its single eye. A metallic voice grated out:
"RAHKI JAHRA EXPERIMENT E.F.A. DETECTED IN VICINITY OF SUBJECT L.T.L. SEPARATE AND RETRIVE."
Katie didn't even have time to blink before four small canisters flew through the air, landing on either the chest or head of the creature. They blew up nearly simultaneously, destroying most of the machine.
"Stop staring and move it!" Ace yelled from her position. Katie and the Doctor booked it to where Ace and the bike were, making a hasty retreat as the other two 'bots examined the remains of their companion.
After putting distance between themselves and the mining machines, the trio paused to figure out what had exactly happened.
"What was the charge on your energy rod?"
"83,000 giga-watts."
The Doctor gave Katie a look. "Have you been going through my storage spaces again?"
"Yes. Ace, when you were on level with it, could you see any of the inner workings?"
"There was no light to see anything."
"Means were working nearly from scratch. What kind of power source wouldn't be affected by a power surge, but would still generate enough power for the mining?"
"Either it has one heck of a surge protector, or it has several ways of powering."
Katie clicked her teeth together. "I'm leaning towards surge protector. The Krize sound like the type to have something like that."
The Doctor finally found his chance to break in. As much as Katie and Ace disliked each other, they worked well together. "No, the Krize's greatest rule is non-interference. They keep it in mind at all times, even down to the air pollution when they absolutely have to go somewhere."
Ace furrowed her brow. "Then why have the mining robots give off smoke? Why send them here at all?"
"Now that last one is something I don't know, and we aren't likely to get anything out of the robots about it either. The smoke and steam might be explainable though."
"I know I'll regret this in about two seconds," Katie said, "but please, explain."
"In a word, steam."
Katie looked at Ace. "Told you I'd regret it."
The Doctor continued as though she had said nothing. "Steam would provide the greatest balance between non-interference if a native found and disassembled the machine. If pulled apart, the only thing they could possibly gain is a boiler. They probably have some kind of separate supply running their digging lasers and so forth, but that would simply look like an odd box."
Katie held up a hand. "Rewind a few moments. They're eating trees, bushes, grass, animals and people, and then burning them, in order to mine an explosive mineral? Now I am mad."
"Alright, so now we know how they work. How do we stop them?" Ace asked. Katie shrugged.
"I know you won't like this one Doctor, but Ace, couldn't you just blow the others to bits like the last one?"
"I only have two left, and there was plenty of the last one left. I don't think it's going to cut it."
The Doctor stared at her. "Say that again."
"I don't think it's going to cut it."
A grin spread across the Doctor's face. "Oh, Ace you're brilliant! We don't need to pull the whole thing apart—"
Katie interrupted, as was her habit. "We just have to cut of the head, or in our case—"
Ace finished the sentence. "Blow it off with one to the neck."
Katie took the miniature harpoon gun off of Ace's bike and attached a new harpoon. She twirled it gunslinger fashion. "So, who's ready for round two?"
"This didn't end well the last time," the Doctor commented to the two girls. The trio was watching the remaining robots, who were working steadily, though their rate was down, owing to the absence of the first one.
"Last time we didn't know who we were up against," Ace said.
"We knew the who, just not the what. Now we have a better idea of how to get rid of them," Katie added.
"Well, almost."
Ace and Katie froze. "Almost?"
"You've forgotten about the Ronodim."
"Would it be that highly explosive in an impure state?" Ace asked.
The Doctor tilted his head, tugging on an earlobe. "Well, depends on how impure it is. But with the growth rate around here and the way it tasted, I'm going to say it's about as pure as you can make it."
"Oh, bugger."
"Don't swear," Ace and the Doctor admonished Katie.
"Oh, hush." Katie bit her top lip, thinking hard. "Wouldn't something that dangerous be stored in something protective?"
"I use nitroglycerine, Kate, not AN/FO. Anything protecting the Ronodim would be burnt to a crisp, and set it off at the same time. We'd be turned into a crater along with the rest of the surrounding area."
Katie turned to the Doctor. "Is there any way to get rid of Ronodim without blowing up the trash man?"
The Doctor rubbed his jaw. "If you got it hot enough fast enough, it could vaporize. It would be pretty harmless then."
"Hot as in…"
"Oh, possibly three Nitro-11 canisters at once."
Katie clicked her teeth and let her shoulders droop. "Well, nothing to be done. We can at least destroy the other digger. That would stop the collection 'bot from being able to gather more."
Ace nodded. "Right then. Kate, hop on the back. It'll be easier for you to take aim with your harpooning gun."
"Check on that," Katie said, pulling out the gun. The Doctor looked quizzically at her bag.
"Did you get that from the TARDIS?"
Katie looked down. "What, the bag? Yah. Has a great mail-bag shape to it, has no end to the amount of space, and has some kind of awesome circle design all over it."
The Doctor looked like he was going to say something, then stopped and nodded. "Alright. I was just wondering."
Katie raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to Ace. "We going?"
"Get on."
The Doctor had voted to follow them behind previously, so Ace and Katie drove off to bring down the second machine. At the time it had been because he felt they were simply a little too happy destroying things that weren't living. Now there was another reason.
The bag Katie had was Galifreyian. The faded circles were writing, his name to be specific. It was his old schoolbag. The Doctor figured he ought to be bothered. Somehow, he wasn't. It just seemed right she should have it.
*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*