Weekend Special Short Tales California 2.2 Chapter 23

 

23.

“There she is” The call went out among the gathered at the yard. They were the Enforcers; both side form the Dome and the City, the Truands and the Community.

“I am here.” Esmeralda stood at the upper balcony holding the totem. “I am here, Padre. I am here, Voivode.”

“Chey, come down please.” It was the Archdeacon. He then removed his mask. “I will protect you. I am your padre.”

“We are here for you.” The Voivode added her plea.

‘Chief, the doorways to the upper levels are barricaded.” The Enforcer reported to the Chief. “We have to storm it.”

“Give us the key and we will call it even.” It was the King of the Truands “You have my word.”

“No, give me the key. I will give you pardon.” Raoul voiced out.

“Get the others. We will use the back access.” Captain Phoebus called his Enforcers. He knew of the other access. He then rushed off inside the Dome. He was seen by Esmeralda. She turned to the droid.

“They are coming. We need to find a place to hide.” Esmeralda sighed. “It was a mistake to get up here. We are trapped.”

I had listened to her words. It may not have meant anything to me as a droid but I was not then. I was Quasimodo. I had my programs updated. It reflected new routines. I rushed to the entrance of the back access. I have the schematics of the Dome with me. I accessed the situation and impacted my upper right limb into the wall at the access. I had punched in hard and reached the power cables. I reached in and pull the cables. It would severe the power feed and the door access controller was compromised.

The Dome security system had then kicked in. It was to initiate a lockdown on the doors and access as if there was an intrusion. The next thing I did was access the controller via the remote box. I override the access codes there.

“Captain, we can’t get the door to open. The locks are not responding to our codes.” The Enforcer called out when they tried to open the back access doorway.

“Override the codes. Use the Security Override.” Captain Phoebus replied. The Enforcer tried that and replied the action was null.

“Damn! Rival must had changed the codes.” Captain Phoebus cried out in frustration. “Get the ropes. We will scale the walls.”

It was the last method to breach the Dome in case of such emergencies. The Enforcers went to the Armory to retrieve the grappling tool and ropes. They took it out to the yard and prep the unit to shoot the grapple high onto the balcony. They had nine of it setup.

“Fire!” Captain Phoebus gave the command. The nine grapples shot up and then landed on the balcony sill.

“Climb!” Captain Phoebus called on the Enforcers. He then looked at the Chief. “Give me cover fire.”

Esmeralda saw the grapple latched onto the balcony and the claws locked into the flooring. She rushed towards it to pull it out but the claws were locked in hard. She looked to me.

“We got to pull it out.” I responded but the grapple was deep in. I had to use the drill bit on my palm of the front upper limbs to pry it out. It was working but it took time. I had then removed a few chunks of the flooring. I saw her picked them up and threw it at the climbing Enforcers.

It gave me a solution. I rushed to the balcony sill where the rope was hanging on. I slammed down with my upper limbs on the concrete there and chunks of it came off. I had my other arms to pick up the chunks and then threw it with the force of my limbs. It was an improvised weapon of the past. The chunk impacted on the first Enforcer when he was at a height of a hundred feet. It caused him to fall off. My action was rapid that I released off six chunks in the next few seconds and dropped the Enforcers.

“It’s the droid.” Captain Phoebus who was at the yard called out. “It’s helping the girl.”

Chief Raoul had then taken action of his own. He had his Enforcers to storm the back access with the heavy firepower.

“I want the key program.” His Enforcers stormed back into the Dome. They used their blasters in a concentrated fire on the door access. It may be considered as barbaric move of ramming it short of a battering ram.

“Follow them. I want Esmeralda saved.” The Voivode had told her warriors. She then saw the Archdeacon who was nearby and having removed his mask had then climbed the rope.

“Stravos, follow him. He must not reach her. He will kill her.” The other heard the call and reached for the other rope.

I had resorted to breaking the concrete for the chunks to toss below. My last piece was a huge chunk and it weight a hundred and two pounds with a length of four feet. I tossed it down to land on the invaders below. I heard the call by the Chief Enforcer on my sonar reception. I rushed to the blocked access door. I pry open the doorway open and scanned below. They are making headways on the doors. I need a more permanent blockade.

I knew it was inevitable and grabbed the railings at the stairs. I pulled it apart and used it as a battering ram on the stairs. I broke through a hole and then used my strength to break the flooring until the whole stairs were vibrating from the weakened foundation. I stomped on it with my lower limbs and parts of the stairs went down.

It worked.

What did not work was getting shot.

The blaster shot hit me on the back of my frame.

I reeled forward before my programs righted me. I had to levitate up to the top doorway while the stairs collapsed on the earlier damages.  I moved back to the balcony to see Esmeralda was not there but there stood was the Archdeacon was there. I saw the other climbed up.

“Esmeralda…” I heard the Archdeacon called.