It had been four long weeks surface-time, but after countless dead ends, the father and his son caught sight of their quarry.
The father gestured. The son nodded. They had become such an effective team that they didn’t need to use their comms, which was fortunate, as their prey was receptive to the radio waves.
The pair carefully angled themselves, then activated their auxiliary propulsion jets before instantly shutting them off.
Their prey pointed an antenna in their direction, but because their jetpacks had once more gone inert, no energy signature was detected.
The hunters waited until the antenna pointed in a different direction, then once more activated their packs for a split second. Over and over, the duo continually boosted themselves toward their quarry in such a way it would not sense their jets.
Finally, the two reached a point where they were close enough to take a shot. The father looked at the son, and the son at his father. The son gave a series of complex gestures that, more or less, meant ‘On my signal?’
The father nodded.
The pair aimed their electro-rifles at the target.
The son’s voice came across the intercom. “Now!”
Both father and son squeezed their guns’ triggers.
The quarry turned toward them in response to the radio waves, but before it could react, the invisible electromagnetic beams passed through it. The prey’s limbs flailed for a moment before going limp. Its jet boosters flared momentarily before going dead.
The father and son unleashed a few more shots to ensure they’d killed it, then when they were certain it had been destroyed, they exchanged expressions of pure satisfaction.
They said nothing, but instead flew toward the target’s remains.
Sunlight glinted off its chassis. Its grinders, while dull, were clearly still effective, as was evident from the scraps of freshly ground metal in its gears.
The son scanned the robot’s serial number. “Alright! It’s an early model too!”
The father nodded. He knew his son was involved in a few casual competitions with other hunters, one of which involved bagging the earliest Orbital-Eater possible. To him, the father, the real prize was the monetary value tied to the kill.
“More importantly, it’s a SnaCast Model 5.” The father lightly pinched one of the antennas, causing the orbital momentum of both himself and the robot to shift slightly so that he was now starring directly down at the Earth. “Energy avoidance detectors to keep it from consuming live satellites.” He spun it a bit more so that he could see two rows of holes on the automaton’s backside. “Nursery ports.” He rubbed one. “Well worn… It’s had a lot of offspring.”
The son looked around. Even with the vastness of space, orbital trash still zipped around them. “You think it would’ve done a better job cleaning things up.”
“That was the problem with these Cleaners, and why they’ve got a bounty. Yes, they consume the large pieces of junk, but anything smaller than a bolt or a screw is not worth the energy expenditure, so it ignores them. Because of this, they take easily-managed objects and break them down into smaller, bullet-like projectiles.” Even as the father spoke, a coin-sized piece of metal lazily floated by them.
“Hard to believe this junk’s such a nuisance.” The son said.
“That’s because we’re floating at similar speeds, but if you’re trying to launch from Earth, then you need to use the laser causeway.” Beneath the pair, on the planet’s horizon, a beam of light shot into the depths of space. It rotated in tiny circles, and the duo knew it was creating a small hole in the layers of orbiting rubbish in order to allow a ship to pass.
“Either way, we did really well, didn’t we dad?”
The father nodded. “It took a while, but Model 5s are one of the hardest quarry to bag.”
Two small alerts let the pair know they’d each received new messages. The first one confirmed the robot’s make, model, serial number, and most importantly, reward value. Both of their bank balances had grown substantially.
The second alert informed them that a CRR-Swarmer had been detected within fifty-five miles of their current location.
“What do you say, son?” The father asked. “I know it’s not as much of a challenge, but how about a warm-down hunt before returning to Luna-3?
The son nodded. “I’d never say no to a little extra cash.”