Alidar Moxie Wins First Annual Al Raqis Golf Tournament

By Selmo Jenkins - Staff Reporter

Al Raqis, Solen's Drift. The first ever Al Raqis golf tournament was held last week at the Arren Solen golf course. The tournament was officially the 'Guild Invitational Open' and was attended by several off-world dignitaries, including several Navigators who were spectators and the heads of several minor houses who came for the tournament and have since left. Arren Solen has indicated that he was very pleased with the smooth functioning of the course infrastructure. When I asked "Why weren't more people invited and more notice given?" he replied "it was my understanding that the Guild wanted to keep the number of participants small so that the the course could be tested and the short time frame was simply because several of the golfers were already in route to another location when we opened the course."

I asked Ms. Moxie about the most challenging about this course she seemed at a loss to choose the most difficult portion. "The sand sea separating the 4th hole tee off from the green is almost as difficult as the acid bath on the 7th tee that you have to slice around". When I asked about the distinct lack of grass on the course she said "you know, the rocks in place of the greens really does seem to work well, though it does introduce a element of randomness that is only matched by the wail and tremors caused by the worms agitation of the vibro-balls".

Ms. Moxie finished the day with a score of -2, which was enough to edge out the day on the competitive course and earn her some good natured jibes as to the nature of the 'practice' she was able to put into the course beforehand.

Leemos Squall Programs Victorious Android Gladiator in Robot Arena

The Tournament begins - steam-bot is knocked down

By Selmo Jenkins - Staff Reporter

Al Raqis, Splintered Rock Arena. In times past some noble houses had rather barbaric practices. The Baron of House Hoskanner, for example insisted on regular gladiator tournaments whenever he visited his holdings on Al Raqis. Fortunately, we live in more enlightened times (or is it that trained slaves are more expensive?) and gladiatorial combat to the death is rare. However, those enjoying nihilistic blood sports were encouraged some days ago when a suspensor-powered arena was erected for the first of a series of Robot Gladiator Tournaments.

I was provided with a ringside seat and the spectacle of destruction that followed was not disappointing. There were initially eight gladiators entered into the tournament but one had to drop out due to a cyclotron malfunction. The seven that remained (and their programmers) were:

Tron-droid faces its spherically modular opponent

The tournament consisted of three rounds, with the survivors of each round going on to fight each other until the final round. Because there were only seven entrants the vamp-droid was the lucky one who had a free pass to the second round. For the rest... the gladiatorial combat began!

The first match pitched the raptor-bot against the steam-bot. It appeared an unfair pairing; the raptor-bot towered over the small steam-powered machine from a more refined age. However, events proved otherwise! With a full head of steam the little bot packed quite a punch and although it was close, it was the raptor-bot who suffered defeat.

The insectile android and power-bot
prepare for their bout

Next on the suspensor arena was the tron-droid facing the sphere-droid. Now, I'm no expert and I know that a modular spheroid construction can have many benefits, but it appears that prowess in gladiatorial combat is not one of them. The match was soon over with the tron-droid victorious.

The final match of the first round saw the power-bot take on the insectile-droid. The insectile-droid had a most fearsome appearance but sadly its tactical subroutines let it down. While it was evading the power-bot's attacks at the start of the match, the power-bot's capacitors stored up charge which was released with devastating effect in series of alpha, beta and gamma blasts. The insectile-droid was dragged back to its secret base so its mysterious alien technology could be regenerated.

Raptor-bot makes short work
of the vamp-droid

So at the end of round one steam-bot, tron-droid, power-bot and vamp-droid went on to round two. Unfortunately, at this point there was a splutter and it appeared steam-bot's pressure was dropping. Its programmer requested more coal, only to be told that there was no supply of this fuel to be found anywhere on Al Raqis. The steam-bot chugged to a halt and had to retire from the tournament allowing raptor-bot to go through to the next round in its place.

Power-bot proves no match for tron-droid

The first match had raptor-bot facing vamp-droid. This time the raptor was determined not to suffer the ignominy of defeat and after a close match, hurled the vamp-droid from the arena. The next match had tron-droid facing the power-bot. The tron-droid's active skin circuits were able to dissipate the power blasts of the power-bot and slowly but surely the tron-droid wore down the squat little robot. Tron-droid and raptor-bot would now meet in the final round.

Tron-droid faces raptor-bot in the final

The crowd was apprehensive as these two robotic monsters entered the arena and scanned each other. It was a tense match with massive energies being hurled from one artifical life-form to the other, with the blasts of deadly radiation often temporarily blinding the crowds. But after several of these exchanges finally, the raptor-bot was left limping and sparking and the tron-droid hurled its chassis to the waiting salvage crews below.

The arena was a grisly site indeed; pools of oil and hydraulic fluid slowly oozed over the side and gears and servo-motors were strewn about. The crowd gave the tron-droid and its programmer the adulation due to them as the prize was presented. Then everyone slowly ambled home, eagerly awaiting the next tournament to provide some slight diversion from their daily tasks.