This one was a bit of a mixed bag to me.

I love the set up and characters, but the pacing was a bit confusing, and it didn’t flow well in parts.

It also switched from past to present tense a few times, something we’ve all fallen for, but distracting nonetheless.

This seems like the introduction to a much bigger story; I was confused by the ending. Perhaps there’s more?

I’d happily read it if there is.

Is this the introduction to a longer story? I'm not sure why the story ended where it did. It felt half-finished. Was it a time crunch thing?

As far as the actual work goes I enjoyed it overall. It was a nice slow burn with some good, subtle characterization throughout. You've got a good voice, and I'd encourage you to trust your prose and let your characters speak for themselves. You don't need, for example, to tell me Roark is doing something "calmly" because you've already got me picturing that with the businesslike way he's described as acting to that point.

While I did like the piece, and I wouldn't mind knowing where you were going with it, I'm not sure how it fits into the whole "strength versus intelligence" idea. I suppose the investigation and tracking could be construed as intelligence, but I'm not sure what the "strength" would be that runs up against that, or contrasts it in any way, and I'd love to know what you were going for there.

compelling imagery and some very good use of limited descriptors that helped imply setting detail far beyond the word count, very nice!

Oh right, DAO U... Did make me curious as to what exactly lead the robots and the pilot to this point, were they the enemy or were they protecting them? Always good to have a reader asking questions beyond the confines of the story. Nice.

Good job, I really liked the visuals presented in the first third of the story. The wording you chose really sold that cold feeling.

This one flowed really well, and I love that you have models to match it!

Great story, theme was subtle. Great imagery.

"Cold steel, hot plasma" caught my eye immediately!! Well done!

Good work! I think that a little more emphasis on the difficulty of tackling the robots would have adhered to the theme better, though; those rifles seemed pretty darn strong!