Siege of Dome City – II

13th July 2355, 8PM

It was going to get dark soon and we were not even close to winning this battle. The majority of enemy units under artillery firing were getting decimated but that didn’t give us any relief.

There were at least twenty units inside that electromagnetic bubble shield and they were enough to bring our city down. The added threat of nuclear strike put our citizens’ lives in greater danger. I was out of my wits for the first time in a long while.

I asked Phil to keep the Revenants ready near the city perimeter to intercept any missile that was launched against us. I believed that with careful timing, the Revenant drones could block the missiles. Another team was assigned to keep a constant eye on the enemy units inside the bubble using the Felines to find any weakness whatsoever. Yamamoto was in charge of finishing up the units caught under artillery fire. He reserved a few Panthers to hit the stragglers if any.

I sat down to think how to get through the shield with of course no information about it. Suddenly, our communication officer stood up and shouted that an unknown source is trying to send us a message. Phil told him to open the communication channel and a heavy old voice started speaking in a menacing tone, “As you people might have guessed, your city is under siege. I am giving you two options, both of whose outcomes will end in me and my associates taking control of your city. The first option leads to all of you being alive and leading peaceful lives. It involves surrendering to me. Your leader may come and negotiate the terms with me.” He paused for a short while and again started,”The second option will lead to violence, which even though I like is unnecessary for you. I’m giving you an hour to decide which way you accept me as your leader.”

The silence in the control room was ominous. Everyone looked towards me, Phil and Yamamoto. I knew they were looking for guidance but we didn’t have the right to decide the fate of so many people. I was spellbound for a moment. Suddenly, a young man at the end stood up and said,”Excuse me sir, I would just like to say that if you want to fight this guy, we would fight till death along your side. We know what this city and its people mean to you and we know you won’t lead us into the hands of a vile person.”

I was overwhelmed. I have spent more than two centuries on this planet and I have seen humans. Humans led this earth to its current stage because of their petty ego and greed. I won’t say that I expected the same from people of my city. I knew they were aware what human greed can do to this world but I hadn’t expected such kind of support. That boy brought a smile to my lips. I could feel a sudden energy rising through me. I said,”We fight and we fight till each of our enemy falls.” and I made sure that I was loud enough for everyone to hear me.

Sergei had given us one hour to decide. I didn’t believe that he was going to wait for one hour and I made sure that we utilise whatever time we had. I suddenly had an idea albeit a primitive one but it could help in stopping Sergei’s attacks. However, my idea was only good for stopping the attacks but at least it could give us some time to figure out how to bring down his shields.

I took Phil and Yamamoto aside for a brief discussion. My plan was to drop a box open at the bottom end. The walls were to be made of damage absorbing alloy mesh with the insides coated with thick layer of Prótego. Of course the box had to be heavy or else the missile strike would simply blow it off.

Carrying such a box would require careful planning and immense precision during execution. Phil and Yamamoto were not exactly convinced but that was the only idea at the table. They agreed to give it a try. The design team was notified soon after. Till the box was fabricated, we needed to engage Sergei without taking much damage. Then, while dropping the box over them, we needed to make sure that our enemies didn’t blow up the carriers.

I asked Phil to think about it till I formulated a strategy to block the incoming nuclear missiles. Conventional nuclear warheads used a neutron agitator to cause fission in the plutonium core. Of course, the agitator was electronically controlled and if we could hack into the operating frequency, the missile could be disabled. The problem was, it was impossible to hack till the missile was fired. I was thinking about using a swarm of drones with hacking modules each trying to break through using separate range of frequencies. That was the best we could do at this moment and for launching the swarm we needed more Revenants. I passed in the requirements to the Defence manufacturing unit. Unfortunately, they needed at least an hour to fabricate six Revenants. It made matters difficult as we had only enough of those to create a small swarm and they did not have any hacking modules. If we were to use them for hacking then each drone needed one personnel not to mention it was time consuming. It further meant that the existing Revenants could not be used for any other defence purpose. There was only one option to stall them, to sacrifice the beasts of war. I was certain that they wouldn’t have been able to cause any damage but at least they could distract.

Suddenly, the entire dome shook with the sound of multiple blasts followed by loud whining of civil defence sirens. Thankfully, we did put in place certain wartime protocols. According to these protocols, each house was converted into a bunker capable of withstanding nuclear weapons along with food supply for 2-3 months. The entrance was completely inaccessible from outside. This wasn’t enough but at least minimised civilian casualties.

Comm channels crackled again. Sergei’s heavy voice filled the room, “Weeelll, I was tired of waiting. So, I started with my fireworks. You lot don’t have any sense of self preservation do you? I’ll take this city the best way I like.” I ran a diagnosis of the dome’s structural integrity and it checked out fine.

I ordered the operators to release the Beasts. We had to buy as much time as possible.

To be continued…