SURVIVAL TACTICS
 

 By AL SEVCIK
 
 
 ILLUSTRATOR NOVICK
  The robots were built to serve
 Man; to do his work, see to his
 comforts, make smooth his way.
 Then the robots figured out an
 additional service—putting Man
 out of his misery.
 


 There
 was a sudden crash
 that hung sharply in the air,
 as if a tree had been hit by
 lightning some distance away.
 Then another. Alan stopped,
 puzzled. Two more blasts, quickly
 together, and the sound of a
 scream faintly.
 
 Frowning, worrying about the
 sounds, Alan momentarily forgot
 to watch his step until his foot
 suddenly plunged into an ant
 hill, throwing him to the jungle
 floor. "Damn!" He cursed again,
 for the tenth time, and stood
 uncertainly in the dimness.
 From tall, moss-shrouded trees,
 wrist-thick vines hung quietly,
 scraping the spongy ground like
 the tentacles of some monstrous
 tree-bound octopus. Fitful little
 plants grew straggly in the
 shadows of the mossy trunks,
 forming a dense underbrush that
 made walking difficult. At midday
 some few of the blue sun's
 rays filtered through to the
 jungle floor, but now, late afternoon
 on the planet, the shadows
 were long and gloomy.
 
 Alan peered around him at the
 vine-draped shadows, listening
 to the soft rustlings and faint
 twig-snappings of life in the
 jungle. Two short, popping
 sounds echoed across the stillness,
 drowned out almost immediately
 and silenced by an
 explosive crash. Alan started,
"Blaster fighting! But it can't
 be!"
 
 Suddenly anxious, he slashed
 a hurried X in one of the trees
 to mark his position then turned
 to follow a line of similar marks
 back through the jungle. He
 tried to run, but vines blocked
 his way and woody shrubs
 caught at his legs, tripping him
 and holding him back. Then,
 through the trees he saw the
 clearing of the camp site, the
 temporary home for the scout
 ship and the eleven men who,
 with Alan, were the only humans
 on the jungle planet, Waiamea.
 
 
 
 Stepping through the low
 shrubbery at the edge of the
 site, he looked across the open
 area to the two temporary structures,
 the camp headquarters
 where the power supplies and
 the computer were; and the
 sleeping quarters. Beyond, nose
 high, stood the silver scout ship
 that had brought the advance
 exploratory party of scientists
 and technicians to Waiamea
 three days before. Except for a
 few of the killer robots rolling
 slowly around the camp site on
 their quiet treads, there was no
 one about.
 
 "So, they've finally got those
 things working." Alan smiled
 slightly. "Guess that means I
 owe Pete a bourbon-and-soda
 for sure. Anybody who can
 build a robot that hunts by homing
 in on animals' mind impulses ..."
 He stepped forward
 just as a roar of blue flame dissolved
 the branches of a tree,
 barely above his head.
 
 Without pausing to think,
 Alan leaped back, and fell
 sprawling over a bush just as
 one of the robots rolled silently
 up from the right, lowering its
 blaster barrel to aim directly at
 his head. Alan froze. "My God,
 Pete built those things wrong!"
 
 Suddenly a screeching whirlwind
 of claws and teeth hurled
 itself from the smoldering
 branches and crashed against the
 robot, clawing insanely at the
 antenna and blaster barrel.
 With an awkward jerk the robot
 swung around and fired its blaster,
 completely dissolving the
 lower half of the cat creature
 which had clung across the barrel.
 But the back pressure of the
 cat's body overloaded the discharge
 circuits. The robot started
 to shake, then clicked sharply
 as an overload relay snapped
 and shorted the blaster cells.
 The killer turned and rolled back
 towards the camp, leaving Alan
 alone.
 
 Shakily, Alan crawled a few
 feet back into the undergrowth
 where he could lie and watch the
 camp, but not himself be seen.
 Though visibility didn't make
 any difference to the robots, he
 felt safer, somehow, hidden. He
 knew now what the shooting
 sounds had been and why there
 hadn't been anyone around the
 camp site. A charred blob lying
 in the grass of the clearing confirmed
 his hypothesis. His stomach
 felt sick.
 
 "I suppose," he muttered to
 himself, "that Pete assembled
 these robots in a batch and then
 activated them all at once, probably
 never living to realize that
 they're tuned to pick up human
 brain waves, too. Damn!
 Damn!" His eyes blurred and
 he slammed his fist into the soft
 earth.
 
 When he raised his eyes again
 the jungle was perceptibly darker.
 Stealthy rustlings in the
 shadows grew louder with the
 setting sun. Branches snapped
 unaccountably in the trees overhead
 and every now and then
 leaves or a twig fell softly to the
 ground, close to where he lay.
 Reaching into his jacket, Alan
 fingered his pocket blaster. He
 pulled it out and held it in his
 right hand. "This pop gun
 wouldn't even singe a robot, but
 it just might stop one of those
 pumas."
 
 
 They said the blast with your name on it would find
 you anywhere. This looked like Alan's blast.
 
 
 Slowly Alan looked around,
 sizing up his situation. Behind
 him the dark jungle rustled forbiddingly.
 He shuddered. "Not a
 very healthy spot to spend the
 night. On the other hand, I certainly
 can't get to the camp with
 a pack of mind-activated mechanical
 killers running around.
 If I can just hold out until morning,
 when the big ship arrives ...
 The big ship! Good
 Lord, Peggy!" He turned white;
 oily sweat punctuated his forehead.
 Peggy, arriving tomorrow
 with the other colonists, the
 wives and kids! The metal killers,
 tuned to blast any living
 flesh, would murder them the
 instant they stepped from the
 ship!
 
 
 
 A pretty girl, Peggy, the girl
 he'd married just three weeks
 ago. He still couldn't believe it.
 It was crazy, he supposed, to
 marry a girl and then take off
 for an unknown planet, with her
 to follow, to try to create a home
 in a jungle clearing. Crazy maybe,
 but Peggy and her green eyes
 that changed color with the
 light, with her soft brown hair,
 and her happy smile, had ended
 thirty years of loneliness and
 had, at last, given him a reason
 for living. "Not to be killed!"
 Alan unclenched his fists and
 wiped his palms, bloody where
 his fingernails had dug into the
 flesh.
 
 There was a slight creak above
 him like the protesting of a
 branch too heavily laden. Blaster
 ready, Alan rolled over onto his
 back. In the movement, his elbow
 struck the top of a small
 earthy mound and he was instantly
 engulfed in a swarm of
 locust-like insects that beat disgustingly
 against his eyes and
 mouth. "Fagh!" Waving his
 arms before his face he jumped
 up and backwards, away from
 the bugs. As he did so, a dark
 shapeless thing plopped from
 the trees onto the spot where he
 had been lying stretched out.
 Then, like an ambient fungus,
 it slithered off into the jungle
 undergrowth.
 
 For a split second the jungle
 stood frozen in a brilliant blue
 flash, followed by the sharp report
 of a blaster. Then another.
 Alan whirled, startled. The
 planet's double moon had risen
 and he could see a robot rolling
 slowly across the clearing in his
 general direction, blasting indiscriminately
 at whatever mind
 impulses came within its pickup
 range, birds, insects, anything.
 Six or seven others also left the
 camp headquarters area and
 headed for the jungle, each to a
 slightly different spot.
 
 Apparently the robot hadn't
 sensed him yet, but Alan didn't
 know what the effective range
 of its pickup devices was. He
 began to slide back into the
 jungle. Minutes later, looking
 back he saw that the machine,
 though several hundred yards
 away, had altered its course and
 was now headed directly for
 him.
 
 His stomach tightened. Panic.
 The dank, musty smell of the
 jungle seemed for an instant to
 thicken and choke in his throat.
 Then he thought of the big ship
 landing in the morning, settling
 down slowly after a lonely two-week
 voyage. He thought of a
 brown-haired girl crowding with
 the others to the gangway, eager
 to embrace the new planet, and
 the next instant a charred nothing,
 unrecognizable, the victim
 of a design error or a misplaced
 wire in a machine. "I have to
 try," he said aloud. "I have to
 try." He moved into the blackness.
 
 Powerful as a small tank, the
 killer robot was equipped to
 crush, slash, and burn its way
 through undergrowth. Nevertheless,
 it was slowed by the
 larger trees and the thick, clinging
 vines, and Alan found that
 he could manage to keep ahead
 of it, barely out of blaster range.
 Only, the robot didn't get tired.
 Alan did.
 
 The twin moons cast pale, deceptive
 shadows that wavered
 and danced across the jungle
 floor, hiding debris that tripped
 him and often sent him sprawling
 into the dark. Sharp-edged
 growths tore at his face and
 clothes, and insects attracted by
 the blood matted against his
 pants and shirt. Behind, the robot
 crashed imperturbably after
 him, lighting the night with fitful
 blaster flashes as some
 winged or legged life came within
 its range.
 
 There was movement also, in
 the darkness beside him, scrapings
 and rustlings and an occasional
 low, throaty sound like an
 angry cat. Alan's fingers tensed
 on his pocket blaster. Swift
 shadowy forms moved quickly in
 the shrubs and the growling became
 suddenly louder. He fired
 twice, blindly, into the undergrowth.
 Sharp screams punctuated
 the electric blue discharge as
 a pack of small feline creatures
 leaped snarling and clawing
 back into the night.
 
 
 
 Mentally, Alan tried to figure
 the charge remaining in his blaster.
 There wouldn't be much.
"Enough for a few more shots,
 maybe. Why the devil didn't I
 load in fresh cells this morning!"
 
 The robot crashed on, louder
 now, gaining on the tired human.
 Legs aching and bruised,
 stinging from insect bites, Alan
 tried to force himself to run
 holding his hands in front of
 him like a child in the dark. His
 foot tripped on a barely visible
 insect hill and a winged swarm
 exploded around him. Startled,
 Alan jerked sideways, crashing
 his head against a tree. He
 clutched at the bark for a second,
 dazed, then his knees
 buckled. His blaster fell into the
 shadows.
 
 The robot crashed loudly behind
 him now. Without stopping
 to think, Alan fumbled along the
 ground after his gun, straining
 his eyes in the darkness. He
 found it just a couple of feet to
 one side, against the base of a
 small bush. Just as his fingers
 closed upon the barrel his other
 hand slipped into something
 sticky that splashed over his
 forearm. He screamed in pain
 and leaped back, trying frantically
 to wipe the clinging,
 burning blackness off his arm.
 Patches of black scraped off onto
 branches and vines, but the rest
 spread slowly over his arm as
 agonizing as hot acid, or as flesh
 being ripped away layer by
 layer.
 
 Almost blinded by pain, whimpering,
 Alan stumbled forward.
 Sharp muscle spasms shot from
 his shoulder across his back and
 chest. Tears streamed across his
 cheeks.
 
 A blue arc slashed at the trees
 a mere hundred yards behind.
 He screamed at the blast. "Damn
 you, Pete! Damn your robots!
 Damn, damn ... Oh, Peggy!"
 He stepped into emptiness.
 
 Coolness. Wet. Slowly, washed
 by the water, the pain began to
 fall away. He wanted to lie there
 forever in the dark, cool, wetness.
 For ever, and ever, and ...
 The air thundered.
 
 In the dim light he could see
 the banks of the stream, higher
 than a man, muddy and loose.
 Growing right to the edge of the
 banks, the jungle reached out
 with hairy, disjointed arms as
 if to snag even the dirty little
 stream that passed so timidly
 through its domain.
 
 Alan, lying in the mud of the
 stream bed, felt the earth shake
 as the heavy little robot rolled
 slowly and inexorably towards
 him. "The Lord High Executioner,"
 he thought, "in battle
 dress." He tried to stand but his
 legs were almost too weak and
 his arm felt numb. "I'll drown
 him," he said aloud. "I'll drown
 the Lord High Executioner." He
 laughed. Then his mind cleared.
 He remembered where he was.
 
 
 
 Alan trembled. For the first
 time in his life he understood
 what it was to live, because for
 the first time he realized that he
 would sometime die. In other
 times and circumstances he
 might put it off for a while, for
 months or years, but eventually,
 as now, he would have to watch,
 still and helpless, while death
 came creeping. Then, at thirty,
 Alan became a man.
 
 "Dammit, no law says I have
 to flame-out now !" He forced
 himself to rise, forced his legs
 to stand, struggling painfully in
 the shin-deep ooze. He worked
 his way to the bank and began to
 dig frenziedly, chest high, about
 two feet below the edge.
 
 His arm where the black thing
 had been was swollen and tender,
 but he forced his hands to dig,
 dig, dig, cursing and crying to
 hide the pain, and biting his
 lips, ignoring the salty taste of
 blood. The soft earth crumbled
 under his hands until he had a
 small cave about three feet deep
 in the bank. Beyond that the
 soil was held too tightly by the
 roots from above and he had to
 stop.
 
 
 
 The air crackled blue and a
 tree crashed heavily past Alan
 into the stream. Above him on
 the bank, silhouetting against
 the moons, the killer robot stopped
 and its blaster swivelled
 slowly down. Frantically, Alan
 hugged the bank as a shaft of
 pure electricity arced over him,
 sliced into the water, and exploded
 in a cloud of steam. The
 robot shook for a second, its
 blaster muzzle lifted erratically
 and for an instant it seemed almost
 out of control, then it
 quieted and the muzzle again
 pointed down.
 
 Pressing with all his might,
 Alan slid slowly along the bank
 inches at a time, away from the
 machine above. Its muzzle turned
 to follow him but the edge of
 the bank blocked its aim. Grinding
 forward a couple of feet,
 slightly overhanging the bank,
 the robot fired again. For a split
 second Alan seemed engulfed in
 flame; the heat of hell singed his
 head and back, and mud boiled
 in the bank by his arm.
 
 Again the robot trembled. It
 jerked forward a foot and its
 blaster swung slightly away. But
 only for a moment. Then the gun
 swung back again.
 
 Suddenly, as if sensing something
 wrong, its tracks slammed
 into reverse. It stood poised for
 a second, its treads spinning
 crazily as the earth collapsed underneath
 it, where Alan had
 dug, then it fell with a heavy
 splash into the mud, ten feet
 from where Alan stood.
 
 Without hesitation Alan
 threw himself across the blaster
 housing, frantically locking his
 arms around the barrel as the
 robot's treads churned furiously
 in the sticky mud, causing it to
 buck and plunge like a Brahma
 bull. The treads stopped and the
 blaster jerked upwards wrenching
 Alan's arms, then slammed
 down. Then the whole housing
 whirled around and around, tilting
 alternately up and down like
 a steel-skinned water monster
 trying to dislodge a tenacious
 crab, while Alan, arms and legs
 wrapped tightly around the blaster
 barrel and housing, pressed
 fiercely against the robot's metal
 skin.
 
 Slowly, trying to anticipate
 and shift his weight with the
 spinning plunges, Alan worked
 his hand down to his right hip.
 He fumbled for the sheath clipped
 to his belt, found it, and extracted
 a stubby hunting knife.
 Sweat and blood in his eyes,
 hardly able to move on the wildly
 swinging turret, he felt down
 the sides to the thin crack between
 the revolving housing and
 the stationary portion of the robot.
 With a quick prayer he
 jammed in the knife blade—and
 was whipped headlong into the
 mud as the turret literally snapped
 to a stop.
 
 The earth, jungle and moons
 spun in a pinwheeled blur,
 slowed, and settled to their proper
 places. Standing in the sticky,
 sweet-smelling ooze, Alan eyed
 the robot apprehensively. Half
 buried in mud, it stood quiet in
 the shadowy light except for an
 occasional, almost spasmodic
 jerk of its blaster barrel. For
 the first time that night Alan
 allowed himself a slight smile.
"A blade in the old gear box,
 eh? How does that feel, boy?"
 
 He turned. "Well, I'd better
 get out of here before the knife
 slips or the monster cooks up
 some more tricks with whatever
 it's got for a brain." Digging
 little footholds in the soft bank,
 he climbed up and stood once
 again in the rustling jungle
 darkness.
 
 "I wonder," he thought, "how
 Pete could cram enough brain
 into one of those things to make
 it hunt and track so perfectly."
 He tried to visualize the computing
 circuits needed for the
 operation of its tracking mechanism
 alone. "There just isn't
 room for the electronics. You'd
 need a computer as big as the
 one at camp headquarters."
 
 
 
 In the distance the sky blazed
 as a blaster roared in the jungle.
 Then Alan heard the approaching
 robot, crunching and snapping
 its way through the undergrowth
 like an onrushing forest
 fire. He froze. "Good Lord!
 They communicate with each
 other! The one I jammed must
 be calling others to help."
 
 He began to move along the
 bank, away from the crashing
 sounds. Suddenly he stopped, his
 eyes widened. "Of course! Radio!
 I'll bet anything they're
 automatically controlled by the
 camp computer. That's where
 their brain is!" He paused.
"Then, if that were put out of
 commission ..." He jerked away
 from the bank and half ran, half
 pulled himself through the undergrowth
 towards the camp.
 
 Trees exploded to his left as
 another robot fired in his direction,
 too far away to be effective
 but churning towards him
 through the blackness.
 
 Alan changed direction slightly
 to follow a line between the
 two robots coming up from
 either side, behind him. His eyes
 were well accustomed to the dark
 now, and he managed to dodge
 most of the shadowy vines and
 branches before they could snag
 or trip him. Even so, he stumbled
 in the wiry underbrush and
 his legs were a mass of stinging
 slashes from ankle to thigh.
 
 The crashing rumble of the
 killer robots shook the night behind
 him, nearer sometimes,
 then falling slightly back, but
 following constantly, more
 unshakable than bloodhounds
 because a man can sometimes cover
 a scent, but no man can stop his
 thoughts. Intermittently, like
 photographers' strobes, blue
 flashes would light the jungle
 about him. Then, for seconds
 afterwards his eyes would see
 dancing streaks of yellow and
 sharp multi-colored pinwheels
 that alternately shrunk and expanded
 as if in a surrealist's
 nightmare. Alan would have to
 pause and squeeze his eyelids
 tight shut before he could see
 again, and the robots would
 move a little closer.
 
 To his right the trees silhouetted
 briefly against brilliance as
 a third robot slowly moved up
 in the distance. Without thinking,
 Alan turned slightly to the
 left, then froze in momentary
 panic. "I should be at the camp
 now. Damn, what direction am
 I going?" He tried to think
 back, to visualize the twists and
 turns he'd taken in the jungle.
"All I need is to get lost."
 
 He pictured the camp computer
 with no one to stop it, automatically
 sending its robots in
 wider and wider forays, slowly
 wiping every trace of life from
 the planet. Technologically advanced
 machines doing the job
 for which they were built, completely,
 thoroughly, without feeling,
 and without human masters
 to separate sense from futility.
 Finally parts would wear out,
 circuits would short, and one by
 one the killers would crunch to
 a halt. A few birds would still
 fly then, but a unique animal
 life, rare in the universe, would
 exist no more. And the bones of
 children, eager girls, and their
 men would also lie, beside a
 rusty hulk, beneath the alien
 sun.
 
 "Peggy!"
 
 As if in answer, a tree beside
 him breathed fire, then exploded.
 In the brief flash of the
 blaster shot, Alan saw the steel
 glint of a robot only a hundred
 yards away, much nearer than
 he had thought. "Thank heaven
 for trees!" He stepped back, felt
 his foot catch in something,
 clutched futilely at some leaves
 and fell heavily.
 
 Pain danced up his leg as he
 grabbed his ankle. Quickly he
 felt the throbbing flesh. "Damn
 the rotten luck, anyway!" He
 blinked the pain tears from his
 eyes and looked up—into a robot's
 blaster, jutting out of the
 foliage, thirty yards away.
 
 
 
 Instinctively, in one motion
 Alan grabbed his pocket blaster
 and fired. To his amazement the
 robot jerked back, its gun wobbled
 and started to tilt away.
 Then, getting itself under control,
 it swung back again to face
 Alan. He fired again, and again
 the robot reacted. It seemed familiar
 somehow. Then he remembered
 the robot on the river
 bank, jiggling and swaying for
 seconds after each shot. "Of
 course!" He cursed himself for
 missing the obvious. "The blaster
 static blanks out radio
 transmission from the computer
 for a few seconds. They even do
 it to themselves!"
 
 Firing intermittently, he
 pulled himself upright and hobbled
 ahead through the bush.
 The robot shook spasmodically
 with each shot, its gun tilted upward
 at an awkward angle.
 
 Then, unexpectedly, Alan saw
 stars, real stars brilliant in the
 night sky, and half dragging his
 swelling leg he stumbled out of
 the jungle into the camp clearing.
 Ahead, across fifty yards of
 grass stood the headquarters
 building, housing the robot-controlling
 computer. Still firing at
 short intervals he started across
 the clearing, gritting his teeth
 at every step.
 
 Straining every muscle in
 spite of the agonizing pain, Alan
 forced himself to a limping run
 across the uneven ground, carefully
 avoiding the insect hills
 that jutted up through the grass.
 From the corner of his eye he
 saw another of the robots standing
 shakily in the dark edge of
 the jungle waiting, it seemed,
 for his small blaster to run dry.
 
 "Be damned! You can't win
 now!" Alan yelled between blaster
 shots, almost irrational from
 the pain that ripped jaggedly
 through his leg. Then it happened.
 A few feet from the
 building's door his blaster quit.
 A click. A faint hiss when he
 frantically jerked the trigger
 again and again, and the spent
 cells released themselves from
 the device, falling in the grass
 at his feet. He dropped the useless
 gun.
 
 "No!" He threw himself on
 the ground as a new robot suddenly
 appeared around the edge
 of the building a few feet away,
 aimed, and fired. Air burned
 over Alan's back and ozone tingled
 in his nostrils.
 
 Blinding itself for a few seconds
 with its own blaster static,
 the robot paused momentarily,
 jiggling in place. In this
 instant, Alan jammed his hands
 into an insect hill and hurled the
 pile of dirt and insects directly
 at the robot's antenna. In a flash,
 hundreds of the winged things
 erupted angrily from the hole in
 a swarming cloud, each part of
 which was a speck of life
 transmitting mental energy to the
 robot's pickup devices.
 
 Confused by the sudden dispersion
 of mind impulses, the
 robot fired erratically as Alan
 crouched and raced painfully for
 the door. It fired again, closer,
 as he fumbled with the lock
 release. Jagged bits of plastic and
 stone ripped past him, torn loose
 by the blast.
 
 Frantically, Alan slammed
 open the door as the robot, sensing
 him strongly now, aimed
 point blank. He saw nothing, his
 mind thought of nothing but the
 red-clad safety switch mounted
 beside the computer. Time stopped.
 There was nothing else in
 the world. He half-jumped, half-fell
 towards it, slowly, in tenths
 of seconds that seemed measured
 out in years.
 
 The universe went black.
 
 Later. Brilliance pressed upon
 his eyes. Then pain returned, a
 multi-hurting thing that crawled
 through his body and dragged
 ragged tentacles across his
 brain. He moaned.
 
 A voice spoke hollowly in the
 distance. "He's waking. Call his
 wife."
 
 Alan opened his eyes in a
 white room; a white light hung
 over his head. Beside him, looking
 down with a rueful smile,
 stood a young man wearing
 space medical insignia. "Yes,"
 he acknowledged the question in
 Alan's eyes, "you hit the switch.
 That was three days ago. When
 you're up again we'd all like to
 thank you."
 
 Suddenly a sobbing-laughing
 green-eyed girl was pressed
 tightly against him. Neither of
 them spoke. They couldn't. There
 was too much to say.
 
 
 THE END
What is the plot of the story?
107
cb523904420e45249e25c9ec38ad7ea3
Alan is walking when he hears a sudden crash that hangs sharply in the air. He loses his footing and trips, realizing that there is a possibility of blaster fighting. He hurries to mark an X on a tree for his position and heads back to the clearing of the temporary camp site. This place is home to the only eleven humans, with Alan, on the planet of Waiamea. Once Alan returns to the site, he observes the killer robots and praises Pete for getting them to work. However, when the robots turn on him, he realizes that the robots must have been programmed to pick up human brain waves. He thinks back to Penny, a girl he married three weeks ago who will be arriving with the rest of the colonists tomorrow. This becomes his reason to live against the killer robots, and he observes the killer robots. He fires into the undergrowth and berates himself for not loading fresh cells in the morning as the robot gets louder. He is injured by one and cries out as he feels himself dying. As the robot comes towards him again, he understands what it means to live and forces himself to keep walking. Alan then hugs the bank as pure electricity arches over him, sliding slowly and away from the machine above. The robot trembles and suddenly falls; this gives Alan an opportunity to tackle it. The two struggle, but Alan takes a hunting knife out and jams it into the robot. He wonders how Pete managed to create these robots so perfectly. Suddenly, he hears an approaching robot and realizes that they communicate with each other even if one of them is jammed. Alan decides to run towards the camp because he realizes that’s where the brain of the robots is located. Shortly after running, he finds himself lost because the camp has not appeared in sight yet. He tries to think back to where the camp could be and narrowly misses getting blasted by one of the killer robots. When he fires the pocket blaster, it cancels out the radio transmission from the computer to the robot; Alan sees this as an opportunity to go towards the headquarters building. His blaster suddenly quits, but he manages to hurl a pile of dirt and insects at the robots. He goes into the room quickly as the robot continues to blast. The robot aims point blank at him as he hurls himself towards the red-clad safety switch. Everything then fades to black. When Alan wakes up again, there is a young man wearing a medical insignia telling him that he had hit the switch three days ago. Suddenly, his wife appears, and they hold each other tight. 
110
27216cdf4b2d4b269a12ae1f49d0d62f
The main character of the short story Survival Tactics Alan conducts a solo reconnaissance clearance mission on a new jungle planet of Waiamea for the life of colonizers. Upon landing, Alan and his eleven crew members set up a headquarters from which they monitor the technological equipment. The jungle does not allow Alan to relax, making his way through thick bushes of lianas, came under attack by a puma, but is rescued by a killer robot of dangerous living creatures built by scientist Pete. However, Alan soon realizes that predators and deadly insects are not the most challenging obstacle he will have to overcome. Killer robots hunt, guided by the mind impulses, posing a threat to all living beings, including humans. Suddenly, the robots start chasing after Alan, surrounded by the dark unknowns of the jungle. He flees, thinking about how in two days, a ship with refugees and his beautiful green-eyed wife Peggy will arrive on Waiamea. Alan understands that human lives are in great danger because of insensitively programmed robots that kill indiscriminately. The explorer manages to drown one of the robots in the mud and turn off its power system by climbing on it with a pocket knife. However, before he understands the tactics of subsequent actions, the robots in the area receive a notification of the loss of one of their brethren and attack the lost Alan. He successfully reaches the headquarters in the clearing and turns off the robots' power, but the electric volley manages to hit him. When Alan wakes up after a three-day coma, his colleagues and wife stand over his bed. They all thank him for his bravery and wit.
111
467c84b9caa54fd38f05ea35481ebcd6
The story starts off with the main character Alan, exploring a jungle on an alien planet. After hearing blaster shots, he returns to his ship camp only to find that it has been captured by killer robots, and all of his friends have been killed by them. The robots were created by one of his crewmates, and they were made to help the humans hunt and fight against the alien animal species on the planet, but they went rogue and started killing humans. Alan tries to find ways to beat them, because a new ship of settlers is coming in a few days, including his wife. Alan gets in a fight with one of the robots, and manages to drown it in some mud. This fight hurt him very badly, but he realizes that he needs to reach his ship and shut off the robots from the main computer. He then tries to evade the robots in order to get into the ship, but he continues getting very badly hurt. Finally, he manages to shut them off, but as he does he passes out from all his wounds. When he wakes, the new settlers have arrived, and he gets to reconnect with his wife. 
113
9e3e58aece6d4b59b27ff39457db38a3
A small group of colonists landed on the planet Waiamea to explore the area and prepare the jungle for the arrival of other people, including women and children. While being on a walk in the jungle, Alan, one of the colonists that just landed, hears strange noises. After walking back, he realizes that the killer robots, that his friend was building and whose main goal was to pick up animals’ and dangerous predators’ brain activity and kill them, have been programmed in a wrong way, and now they are aiming at every living creature, including humans. He sees that the other colonists in the camp were already killed, and Alan himself is accidentally saved by a predator who attacks the robot aiming at him. The metal killers are now moving around the territory, guarding it, and trying to pick up somebody’s brain waves. Remembering his wife Peggy and everyone else who was going to land on the next day, Alan decides to at least try to fight the robots and prevent them from killing everybody on this approaching ship. He runs through the jungle, bruising his arms and legs, getting bitten by insects, and manages to temporarily disable the robot by half-drowning him in the river and stabbing his metal corpus with a knife. When he hears the other robots approaching the river he realizes that they must be connected by radio and, thus, are controlled by the main computer in the camp’s headquarters. He runs back to the camp, firing with his blaster which slows down the robots a little bit. Thinking about the importance of the human species and overcoming excruciating throbbing pain in his limbs, Alan gets to the camp. He runs out of blaster cells but makes his way to the computer room. With a robot aiming right at him Alan jumps towards the safety switch and instantly loses consciousness. Three days later Alan finally wakes up with agonizing pain. A medical worker happily informs him that the switch indeed was hit. Alan embraces his sobbing-laughing wife Peggy.
Who is Alan, and what are his traits?
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Alan is one of the men who have arrived on Waiamea. He ventures around the jungle planet but goes on the run after a programming error with Pete’s robots. Alan is thirty years old, and he married a woman named Peggy three weeks earlier. Initially, he is very afraid of death and tries to protect himself from the robots. However, he does realize his love for Peggy and sees it as a motivation to continue living. He understands what it means to live for the first time in his life, and he becomes a lot more courageous. Instead of giving up, Alan chooses to find a way to defeat the robots. He also shows himself to be intelligent, figuring out that the robots are being controlled by radio transmissions via a computer in the headquarters building. Furthermore, he is capable of using his pocket blaster and knife to defeat one of the robots, even though it could instantly kill him with a single blast. Alan is very resilient as well; he is injured and continues to run around and fight against the robots. Even when the odds are against him, his desire to be with his wife gives him the strength to continue heading towards the headquarters building and flip off the switch. 
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Alan is a thirty-year-old scientist and technician, who arrives on Waimea on a scout-ship with eleven colleagues. During his solo exploration, the reader learns about Alan's behavior, ingenuity, and will for survival. Although he faces numerous challenges, including attacks from carnivores, dangers of the jungle and its poisonous insects, as well as human-built robot exterminators, he perseveres. Alan's mission is to rid Waiamea of potential threats in the face of predators and other creatures to provide the planet with the safety of the life of the arriving colonizers. Throughout the story, the reader learns about the young and beautiful Peggy, Alan's wife, who should soon arrive on Waiamea. Alan, unconsciously in love with his wife, is motivated to stop the attack of robots at any cost, ensuring the safety of incoming people. His unwavering thirst for survival and endurance help the reader to recognize the weight of responsibility lying on Alan’s shoulders and empathize with the main character throughout his tedious and dangerous journey.
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Alan is the main character of the story, and is part of a scouting mission sent to a new planet to test if humans could live there. When the robots that were made to help them kill his crew, he has to find a way to shut them off while fighting them. Throughout the story Alan shows a lot of resilience and pain-tolerance. Even though he is very badly hurt by the robots, he continues fighting in order to save the incoming settlers and see his wife again. He is also very intelligent, using his knowledge to defeat a robot in a mud trap.
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Alan is one of the first 11 colonists that came to the jungle planet Waiamea to explore it and get prepared for the arrival of all the other people. When the killer robots murder his colleagues and become a real danger to every human who is going to step out in the jungle on the next day, he has to think and act quickly. Being fairly intelligent, Alan realizes all the risks, understands the basic working mechanisms of the robots, and even manages to destroy one of them by ensnaring the robot in a trap on a bank and disabling him with a knife. He also understands that the only solution to the problem is switching off the main camp computer that controls all the robots. He is very devoted, brave, and rational, too. Both his love for his wife and realization of his responsibility for the future of humanity push him forward and enable him to overcome pain and save everyone from being killed by robots. 
What are the features of the killer robots?
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The killer robots work by homing in on the mind of animals’ impulses. However, due to mass production, robots are also capable of picking up human brain waves. The robots are also capable of firing beams from its blaster, as one had dissolved a cat creature’s entire lower half when it clung onto the robot. The blaster aim is almost always perfect unless the robot’s radio wave or discharge circuit is interrupted. One of its features is also a pickup device. The robots can move around quietly, too, as their original purpose was to guard the campsite. When Alan continues to escape from them, it is revealed that the robots can communicate with each other and the camp computer. The communication works by using radio waves, but it is possible to interrupt these waves using a pocket blaster. 
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Killer robots are the invention of one of the scientists from Alan's team. Their fundamental feature is the elimination of the particularly dangerous living creatures to ensure the safe residence of people on an unknown planet. They respond to brain impulses and shoot towards a live target. Although the scientists believed that robots were programmed to kill only animals, birds, and insects that lived in the jungle and carried an immediate danger to humans, Alan understands from his own experience that robots are defective. Armed with electric blasters, small exterminators move on quiet tracks for better contact with the ground, the killer robots immediately becoming the main danger for people living there. When one of their fighters falls, they can communicate via radio transmitters. Wirelessly, the robots summon new robots to the battlefield for assistance. However, during the fight, Alan deduces that the robots need a few seconds to reset the sight and debug the direction of the shot. Moreover, Alan throws a handful of dirt with swarming insects at the robot, which confuses the robot's settings, making it adjust its aim in the direction of its primary target, winning Alan a few seconds to retreat and save the planet. 
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The killer robots are robots that were made by the exploration crew in order to have them hunt and kill the native animals of the planet. These robots don’t rely on a camera for vision, instead they sense live creatures using their heartbeats and other types of characteristics. They can also communicate with each other, which is how Alan was found by the other robots after defeating the first one. They hold large blasters and are controlled by the ship’s main computer. Alan was able to defeat them by shutting down the computer of the ship. 

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Alan’s colleague, Pete,  has been assembling killer robots that would hunt animals by picking up their brain waves and quickly locating the animal. Apparently, he hasn’t excluded humans’ brain activity from the robots’ targets. Now, these metal killers are taught to kill all living flesh, including people. They have blaster barrels, move around on quiet treads, can communicate via radio, and are automatically controlled by the main camp computer. The radio transmission is disrupted by blaster static blanks which disables the robots for a few seconds. The only way to turn them off is to disconnect them from the computer or switch off the computer itself. 
Describe the setting of the story.
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The story is set on the jungle planet of Waiamea. There are tall moss-shrouded trees and wrist-thick vines that hang similar to a monstrous tree-bound octopus. Fitful little plants grow straggly in the shadows of the mossy trunks, and the sun is blue. The campsite that Alan goes to houses power supplies, one central computer, and sleeping quarters. There are also a variety of animals that live on the planet. Some of these animals include feline creatures and insects attracted by the scent of blood. The planet also has a double moon when it becomes night time. When Alan escapes from the robot, he ends up in a stream of water and mud. As he runs towards the headquarters building, there is a small insect pile that he takes advantage of against the robot. Inside of the headquarters building, there is a red-clad safety switch mounted beside the computer. During Alan’s recovery, he is in a white room with a white light hanging over him. 
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The action of the story takes place on the jungle planet Waimea. Upon the arrival of the research ship, scientist Alan finds himself in the depths of the dark vines. Alan looks around at the shadows entwined with vines, listening to the quiet rustle and faint crackling of the branches of life in the jungle. As he made his way into the tropical forest at noon, the sun filtered through the branches. As the planet approached evening, the shadows were long and gloomy. As the planet's double moon is visible, Alan sees how the jungle flashed bright blue and then hazes in the blink of an eye. The twin moons cast pale shadows, faintly conveying what was under Alan's feet. He stumbled over hidden debris, and sharp-edged growths tore at his face and clothes while insects attracted by blood clung to his pants and shirt. His arm slipped into something sticky that spread over his forearm, causing him to scream in agony. Black spots scraped off the branches and vines, but the rest slowly spread over his arm, painfully, like hot burning acid. Retreating, Alan stumbled upon the bank of a stream in the dim light of the moons. The banks were loose and muddy. The jungle growing along the edges of the water seemed to be one shaggy whole, complementing the picture with the unknown. As Alan flees from the attacking robots, he notices stars in the distance as a sign that a campsite is nearby. After about fifty yards of grass, there was the headquarters building. Alan wakes up in a bright white room, surrounded by familiar faces.
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The story is located on a planet that humans want to settle on. The planet has a very large jungle, filled with very tall trees and insects. The planet is full of these insects, with Alan using them to his advantage and distracting a Robot. The jungle has a large clearing, which is where the exploration party landed their ship, and where the robots seem to be clustered. The jungle also has a lot of bushes and ferns that have sharp edges, and hurt Alan.
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The story is set in the future where people are moving to another planet called Waiamea. It’s covered in jungle forest and that’s where Alan - one of the first 11 colonists that already landed -  is when he hears some strange blaster noise. After noticing the killing robots at the camp and realizing what situation he is in, Alan runs through the jungle while being chased by a robot and ends up on a stream bank where he manages to disable the metal killer. Then he tries to get back to the camp where he can turn off the main computer controlling these robots. He overcomes different jungle obstacles and fires at robots while trying to get to the computer room. Finally, he jumps towards the switch right before losing consciousness. At the end, three days later, Alan wakes up in a hospital-like white room where he finally hugs his crying wife Peggy after learning from the doctor that he did hit the switch and, thus, the robots are not a danger anymore. 

What is the significance of Alan’s realization that he must continue to live?
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Alan’s realization that he must continue to live makes him become a man at thirty. Not only does it fill him with determination, but it is also what fuels him to stop the robots and end up saving everybody. He declares that no law says he has to flame-out at this age, so he continues to work his way through the jungle and against the robots. Without this realization, he would not have been motivated to use his pocket blaster against the robots and knife. Alan would also not have lived long enough to figure out the control of the robots as the computer in the headquarters building. This, itself, also lets him actually choose to go back to the area at the risk of death to find the safety button. Finally, his will to live lets him put aside his fear and goes to push the button, which ends up saving everybody. 
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For Alan, nothing is more important than to continue his struggle throughout the work. The researcher faces insurmountable obstacles such as fights with a puma, a sticky unknown that burns through his skin, escape from killer robots, and the difficulty of making his way through the thick jungle. Although the reader points out that it takes traits like perseverance, bravery, strength, and endurance to survive in the relentless tropical forest, Alan’s character is not the only condition keeping him motivated. The main character realizes that the overwhelming responsibility lies on his shoulders, realizing that the lives of children and women depend on his actions and tactics. Furthermore, Alan obtains a second wind when reminiscing about his loving wife Peggy; he shares that Peggy has brought light into his dark world, giving him the willpower to push through and fight for a better future. Even at the end, when his strength leaves his body, he decides to fight through the pain and stop the inevitable nightmare, clearing the jungle out of killer robots.
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Before reaching the ship, Alan fought that he was going to die, and that he wasn’t going to be able to shut off the killer robots. He accepts this death, but just as the robot was going to kill him he thinks about his wife. He realizes that if he dies, the robots would kill the settlers when they arrive. This pushes him to continue fighting, and when he does the defeats the robots and saves the settlers.
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As one of the first colonists of the planet, Alan realizes that he must continue to live to save his beloved wife and all the other people traveling with her on the ship right now because they are the only humans left in this world. When pain clouds his rational judgment, and he cannot walk anymore, the feelings of love and responsibility enable him to move further. He disables one robot and, after all, switches off the computer that controls all the other ones. Even though his body is in agonizing pain, his realization makes him move forward and practically save everyone who is to land on the planet on the next day, save humanity in a sense.

