Weekend Special Short Tales California 2.2 Chapter 22

 

22.

Rival Luiz was not a combatant in the Truands but he was never deterred from understanding it. What fascinated him were the relics in the Dome. He had intrigued himself with the mechanism. He once told the Droid.

“This is a bow. And that is an arrow.” Raoul had held the relic in his hands. He held out the bow with his right hand. “I think we are missing the string. It may not had survived the age.”

“Aha, the warriors had used that to hit the prey at a distance. Prior to this was the sling.” Rival replaced the bow and arrow to the display unit. He then shook his head.

“Unfortunately we have no sling but only written records of it.” Rizal sighed. “The ancient had their imagination to develop the most basic weapons. They used to use the sling to toss the small stones. It worked for the weight of the stone when tossed at a fast speed with the correct strength it will maintained its trajectory to the prey and impact with force. The sling assisted the arm in the strength.”

Rizal held out another weapon.

“This is a MG42 Submachine gun, a vicious weapon circa mid nineteenth century, recoil operated, with a fire rate of a thousand two hundred projectile rounds per cycle. The projectile is metal cased with the impact at the effective range of maximum of over two thousand yards. It’s fed by two hundred and fifty rounds on belt or the fifty round belt drum.” Rival then smiled. “Of that, we have a few around. I had them polished and replaced in the belt. I also service the gun. You have to learn that too. It’s our task as the Caretaker.”

Rizal had his use for it then.

“Have at you bunches of corrupted files.” Rizal set up the MG42 at the doorway facing the lobby of the Dome on the ground level. He was shooting at the Enforcers there with short burst of the gun. He had taken down three Enforcers and made the others searched for more covers.

“Remove the Caretaker.” The Captain had survived the initial attack and hid behind the display stand. He had not seen the works of that weapon. His blaster fired the energy bolts and each clip held ten bolts each with an effective range of a hundred yards. The rifle held the same clip but it range was triple the range.

“Where is the Archdeacon?” The Captain had called out. He was down to seven officers including him.

“He left for the basement.” The reply came.

“Hold the doorway. I will see to the …” The Captain was then surprised to see the Archdeacon and the Elite. “I was …”
“We are here, Captain. Who is shooting at us?”

“It’s the Caretaker.” By then, the Truands forced them way in and was killed by the gun held by Rival.

“To cover, men.” The King called out. He had taken cover at the doorway and peeked at the killings. He counted four of men brought down with whatever the weapon was shooting. Unlike the blaster wound, those were bloodied wounds.

“Who is shooting us?” It was the Voivode.

“I don’t know.” The King replied. “I don’t intend to know more but look for Rival.”

“Let me check if it’s… The girl.” The Voivode stammered in her word. She then called out. The Voivode then called for a cease fire.

“Is that you, Esmeralda?” The familiar tone had reached Rizal. He stopped his finger on the trigger at the weapon. He remembered the tone.

“Mama…” Rival stood up from the weapon and held out his arms. It was then the Archdeacon had reached for the blaster held by the nearby Enforcer. He shot Rizal in the face.

“What did you do? Rival held the key program.” Pierre looked at the Archdeacon. “Answer me, Marcus Luiz.”

The name of Marcus Luiz was heard by all. Everyone who heard the name looked at the Archdeacon.

“You fool, Pierre Gringoire.” The Archdeacon shot the Elite in the chest. The Elite went down at the feet of the Archdeacon. The Archdeacon then looked at the others.

“You are all in my domain. I am the Dome as the Dome is mine.” The Archdeacon looked at the surviving Enforcers. He then looked at the Truands.

“Side with me and I will reveal the program key and the vault.” The Archdeacon looked at the King. “Or …”

“No one needs to die anymore. I have all of you in my sights.” It was the voice of the City Enforcers. “I hold the entrances and windows covered. I have the weapons on all of you. I have the numbers too.”

Everyone in the Dome lobby held their positions.

It was to end sooner but the voice of Esmeralda could be heard.

“Hear me all of you. I am here on the balcony.” The voice of the girl came through the communication system. “I hold the key programs to the vault. Come and get me.”

“Trebuie să fac asta pentru voi toți, voievod.” (I must do this for all of you, voivode.)  Esmeralda called out.