word count: 2315 The Machine by Ian M. Boyd "An unidentified flying object has been sighted in the sky. After studying it it is predicted it will land on earth," the T.V. announcer said. Me and my friends were gathered at my house. After our last adventure we thought we had stopped the alien invasion. But we hadn't. "It was last seen over Greenhills Dr. But we didn't need to hear any more. We rushed outside. We saw something falling from the sky. It landed on the ground beside us. It looked like a metal box "Uh-oh," I said. Before my Mom could come out, we picked it up and tossed it in the bushes so Mom wouldn't see. "What was that big bang?," Mom said. "Well, I was just carrying Philip around and I dropped him. A big drop," I said. Mom went back inside. "Whew, that was a close one," John said. "You know, I was just thinking - that didn't look big enough to contain an alien. So, maybe it's a machine," I said. "Well," Jake started to say because then two pincer claws flew out from the machine and then a head came up from a panel and then the machine started to run. From its back, a little gun came out and started shooting at us. "Oh, man!" Jake said. "I knew these aliens wouldn't show any mercy! They're going to destroy the whole world!" Bang! Bang! Bang! Three more machines dropped to the ground beside us. "Oh, no!" I said. "We'd better get out of here." Just like the other machine, these three sprouted legs and heads. Soon, aliens were dropping everywhere like Niagra Falls. Mom came out, and, luckily, they stopped dropping while she was outside. "What's going on?" she asked. "We were seeing who could jump the highest, Mom," I said. "You know how heavy I am." As soon as Mom went back inside, we went back to our houses to get our bikes and then we went to the one place where the aliens might want to got to get more power, the power plant. Luckily, we were right. Now the aliens were dropping directly onto the power plant. I'd heard on the news that the power plant has been giving a little energy to the scientists who had made six laser guns and just needed energy. Just then, I saw two guys dressed in lab coats walk out of the power plant. Each of them was holding three small objects. We needed those guns very badly. I really didn't want to hurt them but we had to. I picked up a pipe that was lying on the ground. It hit one of the guys in the lab coats in the head, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. Jake picked up another pipe and threw it as hard as he could, but it missed. Philip picked up another and threw it and the guy dropped like an anvil. We walked up to them and got the guns. We test fired them. Tttsseeeww! A piece of paper lying on the ground decinegrated. We walked toward the power plant. We saw the machines. They suddenly jumped up,coming together forming one giant machine. Tsseeww! Tsseeww! Tsseeww! There was a flare of fire on the big machine. Then another flare. Then the machine started burning. We kept on shooting until it blew up. But right before it blew up, a little antenna stuck out and a skinny green shot up to the sky. A ton of small machines began dropping. They came together and made fifteen giant robots. We kept shooting and shooting and shooting, but they were shooting from their hands. Luckily, we were able to find some pipes and we hid in those. We kept shooting and shooting. After two of them had blown up, the monsters decided that they should split. They stuck their antennas and began sucking up power from the powerplant. Then they charged off towards the countryside because the powerplant was at the edge of the city. We had to follow them. We kept shooting and shooting. After a while, we gave up the chase. The machines dived into a cornfield, hiding so we couldn't find them easily. We went to the library and looked up the nearest air base. We went to the nearest base where there would be planes with air-to- ground missiles. Me and my friends rode a bus to the base. We saw a truck stop for a Stop sign just outside the base. We jumped in the back. Once inside, we jumped out of the truck so the guards didn't see us. We spotted the jets easily. They were loaded with missile launchers and machine guns. "Okay, who's going to fly?," Jake asked. "I will," I said. "I have FA-18 Hornet demo. " And so it was settled. I would fly. We saw a plane being fueled for a mission. When the airman finished, he screwed the nozzle back in place and jumped down from the wing, bringing the hose with him. He then climbed into the tanker truck and drove down to the next plane. It was a C-130 gunship. We climbed aboard the plane. I took the pilot's chair on the left side of the cockpit. I picked John to be my copilot. The other three went to the back. One of them sat by the gunsight for the big 105 mm cannon that fired out the side. Another sat in the loader's seat. The third went to the 0.30 Minigun, a multi- barrel machine gun that also fired out the side. I turned on the engines. The four turboprops started roaring. I zoomed straight down the runway. I pulled up and soon we were up in the air, flying to the cornfield. When we over the cornfield, I spotted the machines. Philip turned on the television sight for the big cannon. I could watch where the gun was pointing from the monitor in the cockpit. A few moments later, there was a big boom. Philip had fired at the machines. Jake fired the Minigun. I grabbed one of the control sticks for the missle launcher and John took the other. I fired one missle, then heard a click. One of the monitors said, "Missle loaded". One of the machines exploded with a fire. The explosion was so big that one of the other machines caught fire and started burning. Jake hit a machine with the Minigun, and it suddenly blew up. John fired another missle at a group of three machines. It hit right in the middle and all three exploded. "Nine more machines!" I cried. Philip fired the cannon and missed. Jake started shooting the Minigun right over the monsters. Suddenly I understood what he was trying to do. I fired just over their head and the bullets detonated the missle. It blew up in the air and little particles went flying everywhere, hitting the machines and exploding two. I shot a missile and it hit one and it exploded. The explosion was so big another machine blew up. There were five machines left. They all started running in different directions. "I have an idea," I told John. "I'll follow one and while I do that," I said, "Christo, Jake and Philip will try to keep track of the others. John told the others over the intercom system. The machines were very fast. I pulled back on the control wheel and we zoomed up over the clouds. Just like I saw earlier, there was a big opening in the clouds. As soon as I came to it, I saw one of the machines running. I pushed the control column forward and we dived. I fired one missile and pulled back on the control stick. I turned the plane around and began chasing another machine. I noticed that there was a machine gun next to me. I aimed it at the machine we were chasing. Suddenly John fired a missle. I shot the machine gun in the missle's path, detonating it, and little fire particles fell all around the machine. At first, John said, "Why did you blow up the missle? It would have hit." But just as if the missle had heard what John had said, the main part of the missle landed just to the left of the machine. One of the particles hit the machine and it started to burn. Seconds later it exploded. "See?" I said. "I'm making it rain fire." We turned and headed for one of the other machines. I started shooting machine gun rounds over the machine. John fired a missle, and the missle blew up. Philip fired our big cannon, and the bullets set off the shell. The machine caught fire, and a few seconds later, it erupted in a tremendous explosion that rocked our plane. "Whew! That was an extra big one," said John. We turned, looking for the last two machines. The clouds made it hard to fly up high, so we had to go low, and it was hard to see anything in the cornfield as we whizzed by at high speed. "A little slower," said Philip over the intercom. "I have to keep us flying," I said. I didn't know how slowly I could fly and still keep us up. "There!" Christo had spotted a machine, crouched down in a little hollow. It jumped up and started to run as I turned the plane. Philip fired the big cannon while Jake sprayed bullets with the Minigun. The cannon shell went long and exploded in the machine's path. It stopped, turned around and fired a laser blast from its hands. One of our engines burst into flame. "Get him," I yelled over the intercom. John fired a missle. The bullets from the Minigun set it off, and a rain of fire descended on the machine. It turned and started to run again, but it had been damaged by the cannon blast. It tripped, the fire from the missle fell on it, and it blew up just as we passed overhead. "Yeah! Only one left," said John. "Yes, but one of our engines is on fire!" I said. When we found the last one, it's chest opened up and machines started popping out. They started forming together and formed one big one. The new big one's chest opened and more machines popped. Soon, there were five more of the big machines. I grabbed the machine gun and the missle launcher and started shooting and shooting. Luckily, four were in a big group and they all blew up at once. The one that was left was still dropping off machines. Instead of coming back together to form more big ones, they spread out. The big one broke up into smaller machines and they all ran off. I knew the little machines could still reassemble. Worst of all, I saw one of the little ones had opened its chest and was dropping off tiny ones. The tiny ones started to come together to form little machines. This was crazy. They could always make more! What was doing this? Then I saw rising from the cornfield about ten of the big machines. Instantly Phil started firing his cannon. Jake fired his Minigun. John shot missles and I fired machine gun bullets everywhere. I saw explosions all over the cornfield, fires everywhere. Two of the big machines exploded. I looked around the cockpit to see if there were any more weapons. Homing missles! Just what I needed. I grabbed one and fired. It hit a machine and the machine exploded, making more fires. I kept pressing the button. With the other hand, I watched the other missles with the monitor. I didn't care about the homing missles. One of the homing missles turned back at the plane. "Oh, oh," said John. "Are we going to die?" asked Philip. "No! We're going to explode it before it gets here," I said as I fired the machine gun. The homing missle that was tracking us exploded. The others hit the machines. Now I was out of homing missles. This was kind of good because I didn't want any more coming back and blowing our plane up. I was shooting right in the middle of the machines. They were blowing up, but we couldn't seem to destroy them all. I started shooting machine gun bullets and firing missles. The missles started exploding. I noticed there was a button and letters above it that said, "Bomb." I flew the plane right over the machines and started circling. John said, "Why are you flying above them. We can't shoot straight down." John saw me push the bomb release. "Great, Ian. Shouldn't we be higher if you're going to do that?" I immediately pushed the gas. We flew up high just as the bombs exploded. I looked back and saw a couple of the little machines had been blown in the air, but were dropping off little machines. They were forming in the air. I started shooting. Then I had an idea. I went super high, directly above the machines. Then I dropped a bomb. It dropped on the machines, Exploding every single one. Then I saw one tiny machine land on the ground. I landed the plane and walked over to where the machine landed. It was so small it fit in my hand. We left the plane there for the air base to find. We went home. The machines were all gone. Except for the tiny one. That one I took home as a pet. I provoked it until it pulled out it's laser gun and I tore it off. I told my friends who had been in the plane with me and they said (once I told them I took it's gun) it was cute. The End