Honorable Mention:
High School
The Metal War
Denkim had always been good with technology. His skills with a computer were
unrivaled. He had mastered every video
game ever made. He could fix anything,
and most of the time before anyone knew it was broken. Which is why when the army developed a new
type of warfare, the Panzer Unit, Denkim’s skills
were quite an attraction. Panzers were
40-50 ft. tall mechanical humanoid robots.
More costly than a tank, though it is, the Panzers are an unrivaled
asset to the
In the
cockpit of the Panzer 011, docked in the holds of a gigantic flying battleship
the size of
“Good
afternoon Denkim.” Said the face
sounding almost human.
“Hello
ATI.” Replied Denkim in a low
voice. ATI was developed by the
military to aid in the heat of battle.
ATI stands for Artificial Tactical Intelligence. It was designed to relay information to the
pilot about the Panzer’s condition, the pilot’s condition, and impending
danger.
“Panzer online. Fuel
nominal, Oxygen nominal, hydraulic pressure nominal, all systems go. You may proceed to the drop pod.” ATI said very monotonously. The drop pod was nothing but a rocket with
handles for the Panzers to be deployed into battle with. Denkim’s Panzer
whirred to life and walked over to the drop pod. “Drop pod launch in 3…2…1…launch”
The
rocket launched through a bay door the ship had at it’s
side. The enemies must have known it was
coming, fire had already been drawn toward the
hatch. One ground gunner caught Panzer
013 in it’s hand.
The bullet jammed the Panzer’s hand and it let go of the drop pod, fell,
and hit the earth with a tremendous explosion.
Denkim thought quickly and used the hand that
wasn’t holding on to the drop pod and grabbed the gigantic rifle and carefully
popped a shot at the tank that had fired earlier. The foot-long bullet smashed through the
tank’s armor and detonated, killing all inside and around.
The
drop pod landed and just as Panzer 012’s feet hit the ground, a bullet from out
of nowhere destroyed it’s core, sending it to the
ground.
The unknown source of the shot emerged soon
after. A large blue version of the
Panzer stood from behind a large ruined building holding a large anti-aircraft
weapon.
“Objective….objective, seek out and destroy
Colonel Sergi McAlester.” ATI relayed when the machine came into view.
“So
he’s in there is he? Let’s break him
out.” Denkim
said sounding confident. Panzer 010
charged the blue behemoth first, which turned out to be a bad idea. P010 ran with guns blazing at the colonel,
but the other machine simply side stepped it and aimed his AA gun at him,
popped one shot off at the P010, stopping it
dead. The colonel then turned it’s attention to Denkim. Thinking quickly Denkim
aimed his rifle at the AA gun and shot it out of the other machine’s hand. Panzer 011 then removed a small cylinder from
its side compartment. A brilliant beam
in the shape of a blade shot forth. Denkim used this weapon as a sword and quickly charged the
colonel slicing off its head and arm.
“Denkim, the Combat Data Relay (the device running all the
enemy units) is still in the colonel’s machine you have to destroy it.” ATI said adding difficulty to the mission.
“I’m
not gonna be able to search for it…Wait I have an
idea.” Denkim
pushed a sequence of buttons quickly. A
countdown appeared on the monitor.
“Detonation in one minute and counting.” ATI said not seeming to care that her brain
was about to be blown to smithereens. Denkim ran as fast as he could to get away from the
blast. He stopped to watch it as it blew
up. As it did every one of the
surrounding enemy units froze, proving that the CDR was destroyed.
“Confirming destruction of the CDR Colonel module.” Denkim’s radio
sounded. “Pickup of
hero Denkim Lombard and all remaining forces.” The radio clicked off….and Denkim was a hero.
By:
Billy Carlisle