Robot Warriors by Zac Harrison Read Free Book Online

Shazilda’s built her for nothing but speed!”
    Shazilda was a cocky, purple-skinned girl from the planet Pellgrayne; her robot looked like a rotating silver bullet, hovering a few centimetres above the ground.
    “The race will begin in ten seconds!” Master Tronic announced, the red light in his head now pulsing furiously.
    “Good luck,” John said to Kaal. His friend returned a determined smile.
    A high-pitched whistle sounded.
    In the next second, the hall was filled with the whirring, buzzing, thrumming, screeching noises of a thousand robots launching themselves into the race. Aluminium-covered cockroaches raced against trundling battle tanks. Scuttling pyramids with wobbly eyes shouldered aside chattering androids with chomping jaws. But out in front of all of them was Silverfire, rushing through the air like a high-tech express train.
    Super-Rover was hot on Silverfire’s trail. John rammed his speed control up to full, steering him around other robots that had capsized, suffered power failure, or – in one case – burst into flames.
    Super-Rover’s springy little legs were a blur. John bashed the jump button, sending Super-Rover in a graceful leap over a burning robot. Laserdon glided along behind them. Kaal’s face was a green mask of pure concentration.
    Silverfire whizzed into the blue field, finishing first out of the whole contest, followed closely by Dol’s eel-like robot.
    There was nobody else in front. John leaned into the final stretch, sure of finishing next. But then Cammy appeared out of nowhere, right ahead of him! He heard Emmie laugh. “Surprise!” she said, as her streamlined camouflage robot whizzed through the blue field.
    Super-Rover charged through seconds later. John leaped up and punched the air. He’d done it – the first round was down!
    Laserdon was hot on Super-Rover’s heels, and John saw Kaal smiling at his achievement. John quickly counted – only one more place left. The remaining robots wheezed and whined as they struggled to cross the distance. IFI zipped in front of them, moving easily on its force field. As John looked on, Mordant’s robot swerved out in front of two others, a barrel-like stomper and an elegant tripod. The barrel swerved, too, trying to avoid IFI, and smashed into the tripod, sending it toppling over. The students controlling them yelled angrily.
    “Cunning move, sir!” said G-Vez. “Nothing in the rules that says you can’t go sideways, is there, sir?”
    “That’s two less losers to worry about,” gloated Mordant. “OK, I’m bored now. Let’s go.” He pressed a control, and IFI zoomed silently over the finish line.
    “And master is through to the next round!” G-Vez cheered.
    “I could have been first if I’d wanted to.” Mordant put his hands behind his head as if this had all been too easy.
    “The race is now over!” announced Master Tronic as the field suddenly turned red with a buzz.
    There was a chorus of disappointed awwww sounds from the gathered students. The hall was still full of robots ponderously tromping towards the finish. John felt a little sorry for them, despite his own victory.
    “All those who have qualified for the next round will now be transferred to the ship’s main hangar,” Master Tronic said. “To save time, we will be using sonic transference!”
    John had only a second to wonder what that was. Then a dizzy feeling came over him, and his vision started to blur...

Chapter 6
    The next thing John knew, he was standing in the hangar. It was a huge space, easily as big as the Sonic Sports Hall, with one side closed off by a gigantic set of vertical sliding doors. Beyond those doors lay nothing but space itself. It always gave him an uneasy feeling to think about how close that never-ending void really was.
    The sonic transference waves had set down the students in order of year. John found he was standing with Shazilda, Emmie, Kaal, Mordant, and Dol the P’Sidion.
    “I guess we’re through to round