Iron Sentinel: The Shadow Crown

CHAPTER 7: THE FIRST SPLASH

“Don't even think about taking him,” Valerius whispered breathlessly.

A sudden thought occurred to him, and it was all he could do. He grabbed Jax's second vibrating dagger from the floor, which the man had thrown earlier, activated it, and threw it like a spear at the unstable pile of pipes above Jax's head.

It was a weak throw, but enough. The trembling blade struck a fragile support pipe, and another section of the ceiling collapsed. This time, it landed directly in front of Jax, temporarily cutting off his path.

“Now, Cogs!” Valerius ordered.

Inside the workshop, Cogs used all his strength to try and peck at the lever labeled “Crane.” A loud buzzing sound was heard. The crane sprang to life and began moving along its tracks toward the door.

Valerius frantically hooked the giant crane hook onto one of Grimbolt's shoulder plates.

“Pick it up, Cogs!” he ordered again.

The crane tensed. Its motor roared in protest. Slowly, inch by inch, the crane began to lift Grimbolt's body off the floor. Valerius pushed and pulled. He tried to help guide the helpless giant through the doorway.

From behind the rubble, Jax emerged again. This time, he roared angrily. “Damn you, brat!”

“Hurry!” Valerius shouted in panic.

They managed to pull Grimbolt into the workshop just as Jax charged. A terrified Valerius immediately jumped to the control panel near the door and slammed the emergency shut button.

With a loud hydraulic hiss the steel door closed just as Jax's cybernetic fingers reached out.cracka sickening sound was heard as the fingers were cut off.

“Damn it! Open the door!”

A frustrated roar from the other side was heartbreaking, followed by a loud crash as Jax pounded on the door. But the door held.

Valerius leaned against the door, breathing heavily. His heart was pounding. He looked up at Grimbolt's body, which was hanging slightly above the floor. He glanced around the brightly lit workshop. Their sanctuary.

“Okay,” he said to himself rather than to Cogs. “We made it in here.”

“Hooray for us,” Cogs replied dryly. The mechanical bird perched on top of the control panel. “Now for the hard part.”

“The hard part?” Valerius asked, confused.

Cogs pointed with his beak at the lifeless Grimbolt.

"Revive that robot corpse before those noisy door knockers out there find a way in here."

Valerius controlled his still ragged breathing. “Wait, give me time to think,” he replied to Cogs. His mind was foggy now. He couldn’t think straight.

“So, what are your plans, little engineer?”

Cogs' sarcastic voice broke the tense silence. Valerius was still leaning against the sturdy steel door. However, his breathing was slowly returning to normal.

On the other side of the door, Lieutenant Jax's furious banging had stopped. Valerius knew he wasn't giving up. He was simply thinking of another way in.

“I'm not an engineer,” Valerius replied.

He pushed himself away from the door and then walked slowly around Grimbolt's body which was hanging slightly above the floor by Derek like a giant specimen in a museum.

"But I've seen it," he said again, looking at Grimbolt's large body.

He remembered his time in the palace. He had peeked into the royal workshop where the mechanics regularly serviced Grimbolt. He remembered their conversations about aetherium converters, secondary power cells, and emergency reboot protocols.

Back then, it was all just boring background noise to him. Now, it was their only hope. Valerius kept recalling the mechanics' conversation.

“He needs power,” Valerius said to himself. “And lots of it.”

“Brilliant observation,” Cogs exclaimed, flying from the control panel and landing on Grimbolt’s shoulder. “Are you sure you don’t want to write a book on mechanical diagnostics?”

Valerius ignored the sarcastic remark. His eyes began to sweep around the workshop. It was a time capsule. The workbench was made of thick steel, shelves filled with neatly arranged tools covered in a fine layer of dust, and a series of large power levers were mounted on the walls.

Valerius walked over to the main control panel and checked it. Most of the indicator lights were green. The workshop's main power was working.

"Look."

Valerius pointed to a station on the wall he had never seen before. It was a large panel with several coils of thick cables, each ending in a giant copper clip. Above it, a large gauge read "Emergency Charging Station."

“Aha!” Cogs exclaimed. “Looks like your great-grandfather was paranoid. Anticipating the possibility of his expensive toy running out of batteries.”

Valerius grabbed one of the thickest cables then suddenly staggered because the cable was heavy after being lifted.

“Help me pull this, Cogs,” he said to the mechanical crow.

Cogs complied. With Valerius pulling and Cogs flapping his dented wings for support, which turned out to be more moral than physical, they managed to drag the cable near Grimbolt.

“What now?” Valerius asked breathlessly. Then he remembered how Grimbolt had been charging back in the palace. “The main charging panel is on his back. We can’t turn him around.”

“No need,” Cogs replied, tapping his beak against Grimbolt’s stuck chest. However, it was half open, where the dim power core was visible. “The Aetherium Core is designed with an external emergency charging port. It was made for exactly this situation. Look for the small panel with the lightning bolt symbol.”

Valerius followed Cogs' instructions. He searched among the charred and dented steel plates. Finally, he found it. There was a small, hidden panel no bigger than the palm of his hand. With some effort, he managed to open it. Inside, he revealed two large terminals labeled positive and negative.

“I found it!” Valerius exclaimed in relief.

“Don’t tip it over,” Cogs warned. “Unless you want to turn it into the biggest toaster.”

Cogs's words made his hands tremble with a mix of adrenaline and exhaustion. Valerius slowly clamped the red cable to the positive terminal and the black cable to the negative terminal. He double-checked the connections, hoping they were correct, because this time he was really just guessing.

“Okay,” he whispered hopefully. “Step back.”

He walked to the main power panel. His heart was pounding. There was a large, separate lever labeled “ENABLE EMERGENCY CHARGING.” Below it, a painted warning read:‘SENTINEL ONLY. RISK OF EXTREME ENERGY SURGE.’

“Looks like this is it, Cogs,” he said to his mechanical crow.

“After you, Your Majesty,” said the raven and flew to perch on a safe shelf far from Grimbolt.

Valerius took a deep breath and then pulled the lever down.

A buzz filled the room. The lights in the workshop dimmed, almost going out as all power was switched off. The thick cables connected to Grimbolt tensed and vibrated violently.

Blue sparks began to dance around the connection. The gauge on the charging station jumped into the red zone, the needle quivering wildly.

Within Grimbolt's dark core, a blue light began to pulse faintly. Slowly at first, then faster. A low hum began to emerge from within its chassis.

“It worked,” Valerius whispered. “It worked!”

Valerius smiled happily at the results of his hard work.

Suddenly, from outside the door came a deafening, high-pitched metal grinding sound.

Valerius and Cogs turned their heads in unison.

“What is that?” Valerius asked in surprise.

“That,” Cogs replied, his mechanical ruby ​​eyes widening, “is the sound of someone using a plasma cutter to get through a bulletproof door.”

“A plasma cutter?” Valerius asked. “How did he get that?” he asked in surprise.

“There’s always a way for someone like him,” Cogs replied with a dramatic shake of his head.

Jax didn't give up. The man was trying to cut his way in.

Valerius looked at Grimbolt, whose core was still pulsing weakly, then at the door, where a small, glowing orange dot had appeared in its center. It was slowly growing larger.

“How much longer?!” he shouted at Cogs.

“How should I know? I’m not a power meter!” the crow screeched. “But it doesn’t seem like it’ll be fast enough!”

The dot on the door changed size to the size of a coin and they could hear the hiss of melting metal. Valerius, seeing this, began running around the workshop looking for any weapon.

“Come on, anything I can use,” he muttered, his eyes still scanning the room.