Robocalypse Now
Chapter 2: War
Wednesday
Fry glanced at the report the professor had given him as he sprinted down the stairs and his gut filled with dread as it made clear to him just how dire their situation was.
Oprah dammit, he thought to himself, we'll get overrun within the hour…
He made it to the door leading outside and paused for a moment. He adjusted his way-too-loose chest armor which had slipped out of place once again, tightened the chin-strap on his helmet, and checked that his loaned blaster rifle had an adequate charge. He pulled a photo out of his pocket; he smiled at a creased photo of Leela, taking solace that if he survived for another 30 minutes he'd see her again.
Because some of the other evacuation points in the city had been overrun, more ships were being sent to the Planet Express building, because of the high ship traffic it was taking an hour and a half for a round trip instead of the usual thirty minute round trip. Out of the sixteen ships that had been landing and taking off from the building, three had been shot down by an anti-aircraft cannon the bots had commandeered. Luckily the Planet Express Ship had silenced it before any more craft got blown out of the sky. But the damage had been done, instead of fifteen minutes between each pickup, it was now thirty and the people were piling up in the hanger, a hundred and fifty seven at last count. Luckily, the amount of people showing up at the door had slowed down to almost nothing. Unfortunately that also meant DOOP reinforcements had dwindled to almost nothing
Fry took another deep breath and shoved through the front door of Planet Express into the bright sunny day. The stench of ozone and burning oil met Fry's nostrils, and the air tasted like metal; Fry's ears were assaulted by the sounds of explosions, the shouts of soldiers as they coordinated the defense of Planet Express with the thirty-five men and women that were left, and the barks of lasers and plasma rifles as they lanced their destructive beams into the onrushing hoard of enraged robots.
Fry ducked and narrowly avoided a laser blast from somewhere in the robot horde, the robots had broken into NNYPD's armory and had armed themselves to the teeth. Fry could hear the crunch of metal as the robots tromped over it; the three days of fighting had left the ground literally covered in scrap metal from exploded robots.
He peered over the barricade near the door he was hiding behind; he scanned the defenders that stretched around the perimeter of the building, noting that there were noticeably less of them than the last time he had left the building, and that the number of bodies laid in a row near the door had a few more black bags than he had last saw.
Eventually he spotted the mercenary leader, Tom, a hundred feet down from the door; Tom had taken command of the defense once the DOOP lieutenant had been killed. Fry quickly sprinted towards Tom's barricade. As he approached it, a kill-bot managed to get him in its sights and unleashed a volley of lasers. Fry dropped and rolled to a stop next to Tom as the lasers passed through where fry had been milliseconds earlier.
Tom pumped a dozen rounds from his plasma rifle into the kill-bot that had targeted Fry, turning it into scrap; he dropped back behind the barrier, which was made out of scavenged armor plating from the PE building, fallen robot parts and whatever else they could scrape together.
"What's up, delivery boy?" Tom asked grabbing a fresh magazine from the portable ammo refilling station next to him, which, Fry noted, was getting rather low.
Fry handed him the printout, gasping as he tried to catch his breath.
Tom glanced at it quickly then tossed it aside, popping back up over the wall and firing into the horde, dispatching several robots with well-placed shots to their heads and torso, "Summarize it for me." he said, "I'm a little busy here."
"All the other points around NNY that DOOP was using for evacuation fell silent about ten minutes ago." Fry paused and caught his breath again, still winded from the mad dash over here. "The professor also detected that whatever is directing these robots activated three construction-bots twenty minutes ago."
Fry saw Tom's eyes bulge with fear, and Fry could completely understand. Construction-bots were four story tall rotund behemoths. Their round bodies bristled several flexible tentacles used to manipulate construction materials and move around (Authors note: For a visual, think of the giant round robot from The Incredibles), they were screwed if even one of those things made it to Planet Express and they had three to contend with.
"So now that the constructor-bots took the other posts down," Fry said still gasping, "They're all heading here."
"Oh that's freaking perfect…." The mercenary cursed, angrily reloading his rifle again, "How long before the main bulk of them get here?"
Fry looked at the chart and shook his head, "Maybe half an hour, and that's being pretty generous. Luckily they have to come from the other side of the city."
Tom thought for several moments. "Well?" Fry asked, worry etched on his face, he hoped the merc had a plan, he wasn't ready to die yet, at least not before he saw Leela one last time.
"When does the next ship come in?" he asked the delivery boy, his brow knitting.
Fry checked his watch, "Twenty three minutes."
"Which one?"
"The Planet Express Ship." Fry replied immediately, his voice unable to hide his excitement.
"Dammit!" the merc cursed, slamming the magazine home.
"What?" fry said frowning indignantly.
"It's too damn small! But it'll have to do. Ok here's the plan…" Tom beckoned two men who were close to the door to the building, he had one take his place on the firing line and the other was a radio operator. "IF, and that's a BIG if, we can hold this place for twenty three minutes, then we'll cram everyone into the planet express ship and bug out of here."
Fry sat there shaking his head slightly, contemplating the logistics of trying to cram a hundred and fifty or more people into the ship.
"It's going to be tight, but we have to make it work." He turned to the radio operator, "broadcast this on all frequencies," he instructed the man and grabbed the headset from him. "Attention all points and anyone still receiving; this is Planet Express outpost. Our position will be overrun within the next thirty minutes if not sooner. The streets are clogged; there is no way to get here safely. Find a place to hole up and await further instructions. I repeat, do not attempt to get to Planet Express. Hide and await further instructions. Planet Express out."
He turned to fry again, "Go to the professor, and tell him to get ready to move out. Once the ship touches down, start loading everyone, then once that's done, radio us and we'll retreat inside." Tom peered over the barricade, "I'll cover you, go now!" he popped up and fired into the mass of approaching robots
Fry hefted his laser rifle, the urgency in Tom's voice penetrating the haze in his mind from exhaustion and the fighting. Popping up, Fry sprayed the massing crowd of robots with a bust of laser fire and sprinted for the door.
Bursting through the door, the tired delivery boy dashed up the stairs once again and told the Professor Tom's plan.
"Well, that's not very good news…" the professor said frowning, "But I have some good news!"
"The robots are retreating?" Fry asked hopefully.
"Oh heavens no." Farnsworth said shaking his head as if the thought was utterly absurd, "The good news is that I wired a remote control to bender's idling systems and can now use him as a pack mule to carry my things!"
"That's great professor…" Fry said giving him an angry exasperated face, "I'm going to go tell the people in the hanger what's going on…"
He stood up on the conference table and got all of the people's attention and told them the plan, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Suddenly, the floor began to shake and rumble under their feet, and the crowd murmured uneasily. A massive crash came from outside the building and the wall facing the street caved slightly inward. The first crash was swiftly followed by a second. Fry could see the support struts of the building begin to warp under the pressure of whatever was happening outside.
Fry fished his radio out of his pocket, "What the hell is going on out there?" he shouted into it.
"Two of those construction bots are here! They're trying to rip apart the building!" Tom's voice replied, "We're concentrating fire on them but their hulls are too thick, can you get the people out of harm's way?"
"Not a chance! There's nowhere to go!" Fry replied fear permeating his voice, the people ducked down and small bits of debris began to fall from the ceiling and walls. The top doors of the hanger parted slightly, the metal plates buckling, showing the claws of the construction bots attempting to get inside.
Fry winced, ducking as more debris rained down on him and the crowd.
Well, he thought sadly, this is it. This is how I die. I don't even get to see Leela one last time. Fry put his hand in his pocket, grasping for the raggedy picture of him and Leela, as one of the clawed tentacles snaked inside and began to bang around, smashing into the walls, searching for prey to grasp onto.
Suddenly an earsplitting boom rocked the building once again, but it wasn't a massive robot trying to bring the building down. It was the sonic boom of a spaceship. The sonic shockwave was immediately followed by the loud bark of spaceship laser cannon.
Fry's radio crackled to life "Woo-Hoo!" A heavily accented Jamaican voice shouted, "Take that ya stinkin' robots!"
The tentacle sticking through the roof of Planet Express shuddered and retreated, immediately followed by massive crash as one of the robots crashed to the ground. Fry heard whooshing sounds as the remaining robot flailed its arms, trying to hit the ship, causing large dents in metal roof.
"Coming around for another pass!" came Leela's voice over the radio. Fry's heart soared just hearing her voice. For the first time in twenty four hours, he had hope of making it out of this alive.
The cannons barked again, and were soon followed by the sound of the second robot hitting the ground.
A massive cheer went up from the assembled people and fry breathed a sigh of relief.
"Just in time guys!" Fry said into his radio, "We would have been goners if you hadn't showed up."
"You can thank Hermes for the timing, he came up with a great system to offload people in a matter of two minutes! So we managed to shave about ten minutes off of the return trip! "
"Think nothing of it!" Came the bureaucrat's reply, "I was havin' an aneurism from the disorganization anyway."
"Damn!" Leela cursed, hovering over the building, "The stupid hanger doors are stuck!"
The damaged doors creaked and groaned as they tried to open, but were unable to because of the extensive warping and damage from the construction bots' rampage.
Eventually, Leela gently landed the ship on the roof and used the thrusters to gently cave the doors inward, making sure not to hurt any of the gathered crowd.
Fry pushed and shoved his way through the crowd so he could be the first up the ramp so he could greet Leela and tell her the strategy they had planned.
The stairway lowered and fry rushed up it and onto the bridge as Hermes rushed past him to direct people onto the ship in the most effective manner.
"Leela!" Fry cried out, as he came onto the bridge, the gorgeous cyclops swiveled her chair and smiled, clearly glad to see him.
"Fry! Thank god you're still alive! I heard it was getting pretty hairy down here, are you alright?" she said a few worry lines crossing her face as she saw the burns and bruises from near misses.
"I'm fine!" He replied breathlessly, "Listen, it's about to get really nasty down here…"
Fry told her of the situation and what Tom's plan was. As he spoke Leela's eye grew wide in disbelief.
"There's absolutely no way!" she sputtered, "This ship can't possibly fit that may people!"
"We have to." Fry said, his brow knitting together, and his mouth forming a grim line, "No other ship will be able to get here in time."
Leela rubbed the back of her neck worriedly; Fry could see that she was questioning whether she could pilot a heavily overloaded ship safely to Neptune's orbit.
"Hey," he said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile, "We'll be fine; you're the best pilot I know, if anyone can get us out of here safely it'll be you."
She smiled back at him and spontaneously wrapped him in a tight hug; Fry hugged her back, just happy he was alive to get a hug. "Oh Fry, you always know just what to say." She thought for a moment, "Ok, some of the time," more thought, "Ok, well almost never, but when you do it's always when it counts."
Fry chuckled sheepishly. They just stood there holding each other for a moment. Enjoying the brief moment of peace before the chaos began again. They were interrupted by Tom's voice as Fry's radio crackled to life once again.
"Guys, things are getting real bad out here. The bots have tripled in just the last five minutes. If we don't get some help out here they're going to overrun us before the ship is loaded. Anyone that can come out and fight would be appreciated."
Fry and Leela both looked at each other, knowing what needed to be done. They sprinted to the stairway and Fry shouted to the slowly embarking crowd, calling for volunteers. Fifteen people volunteered.
Leela give Hermes the key to the ship. "Get the people on board and radio us when you can take off." Leela said, they quickly shoved their way down the ramp, not waiting for a reply from the stunned Rastafarian.
They led the group to the entrance, letting them go through first; through the doors Fry could hear shouts and non-stop laser fire, he held Leela back for a moment.
They both looked at each other, the intense worry etched on her face told Fry that she understood just as well as he did that they might not see each other again after the next few minutes. They wordlessly joined hands.
"How about a kiss for luck?" Fry asked, smiling somewhat slyly.
Leela gave him an affectionate smile, "For luck." She agreed; she leaned in and they kissed softly for a moment.
Still holding hands, they broke apart, their happy smiles fading as they reluctantly faced the door.
"One" Fry started.
"Two." She continued, cocking her boot back.
"Three!" they both shouted, kicking open the doors and emerging into the hail of laser fire and loud clanking as robots burst apart by the dozens.
The streets were filled with robots as far as fry could see, and more were pouring in from adjacent avenues.
He didn't have much time to take in the scenery as a soldier tossed them both rifles, forcing them to let go of each other's hands to catch them. They both took up firing positions next to Tom and his Lieutenant, Plrrr; the massive Omicronian was spraying has massive minigun into the crowd.
They fought hard for the next ten minutes, repelling wave after wave of mechanical death.
Ammo began to run low and casualties were beginning to take their toll on the ranks, the defenders were down to twenty five people from the forty that had been there when Fry and Leela had entered the fray.
Tom keyed his radio as he ducked down to reload his rifle, "How much longer Rasta-man!" he yelled into it, not trying to hide his desperation anymore.
"I don't know mon! Ten minutes maybe? It's getting harder and harder t' find places t' shove people!"
"You have five!" the mercenary shouted, "Because that's about how much longer we can last!"
Fry unloaded a volley into the crowd of robots; as the magazine ran dry, he saw a familiar orange robot rushing at him, knife whipping wildly.
Roberto jumped over the barrier, landing behind Tom, Leela, and Fry, knocking the weapons out of their hands in the process.
"I'm going to STAB you!" the orange monstrosity shrieked, "I was BORN for this!" he advanced on them cackling madly and waving his knife around.
Just as Tom started to jump forward to tackle the robot, the orange maniac's head exploded spraying them with metal and hot oil.
Fry looked to the balcony of the building, spotting Tom's lieutenant, Jade, having just put a high powered sniper bolt into the back of Roberto's head. She had been up on the roof almost constantly during the last three days, only coming down once yesterday when Tom had come in for a few hours of sleep, the two had curled up next to each other and slept. When they woke, Fry had seen them exchange gentle kiss, then go their separate ways, back to the escalating fight.
Now Fry saw her discard her sniper rifle, having expended her last round on Roberto, she drew the two pistols from her leg holsters and slid down the side of the building, taking a position to Leela's left and firing into the swarm.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the defenders heard a loud rumble from down the street. Fry peered over the wall, his eyes widening in fear at what he saw. Charging down the street with a massive wave of robots at its back, was the third construction robot smashing its way through the robot horde, not caring whether it flattened its comrades in arms.
The robot smashed through the barricades farther down the defense line near the end of the hanger, forcing the troops who weren't killed or injured by the impact to retreat towards Fry's position.
The Robot smashed into the side of the building and immediately beginning to rip the building apart, the claw arms reaching inside through the new holes in the wall, attempting to smash the ship and prevent the ship from taking off.
"FOCUS YOUR FIRE!" Tom yelled, and the remaining defenders focused fire on the robots small head, which was recessed into an indent on the top of the robot's round body. The laser fire bounced off of the robot's reinforced hull and had no effect on the monstrosity.
"What do we do?!" cried Fry, beginning to panic as the building began to come apart at the seams, "If it damages the ship, we'll all be killed!"
Tom shook his head, "It's impossible to fight this thing and keep the robots at bay… and we can't use the ship…" he trailed off and Fry saw the hopelessness in his eyes.
Fry felt Leela's hand slip into his, he looked over at her. She looked at him as if it would be the last time she saw him. "I'm sorry." She whispered, her words barely audible.
Fry opened his mouth to ask her what she was sorry for, when almost faster than he could follow, Leela snatched a grenade from Tom's belt and sprinted towards the behemoth which had almost torn its way through the wall of Planet Express.
She dodged the robots in her way, making her way to the base of the construction bot. she clipped the grenade to her belt and began to climb the robot, using its arms to swing all the way up to the top of his body. She stood behind the head, poised 3 stories above the ground, as the robot focused on smashing its way to the vulnerable spaceship.
She armed the grenade and tossed it into the recess and made to jump off the robot before it detonated, but the robot must have detected her. Faster than Fry's eyes could follow the robot grabbed her in its massive claw. Leela cried out in pain as the claw broke some of her ribs in its grip.
Fry gasped in fear as she struggled against its grip, the robot drew its arm back and flung the cyclops as hard as it could just as the grenade detonated, obliterating the robot's control center, freezing it in place.
Time seemed to move in slow motion for Fry as he watched the woman he loved fly through the air. She didn't flail or scream, but Fry thought he could see her eye wide with fear as she flew over their position.
Her body slammed into the main tower of the Planet Express building with an audible crack that could be heard even over the cacophony of the battle. She bounced off of it and fell four stories to the ground, hitting the concrete with incredible force. She bounced once, her body completely limp, and rolled to a stop, face down, unmoving.
"No…" Whispered fry, "No. No! Nooo!" he screamed and began to sprint toward her, but just as he passed the front door of the building he was held back; an arm around his torso prevented him from rushing to her side. Prevented him from helping her. Prevented him from telling her that he loved her.
He struggled against the unknown arm holding him back but was unable to break free. All of his rage, pain and grief were channeled into the only word that meat anything to him in that moment.
"LEEEELAAAAAAAAAA!"