CO-OP (Animus Book 2), page 25
“Intruder at the door to the core room. Intruder! Intruder!”
Genos looked back to see a havoc-model droid. It stood seven feet tall and was encased in heavy armor. Solid black with a red visor, it sported a chain gun for a left arm and four claws on its right, shimmering with electricity.
It would do.
Genos retrieved his hover-board. There wasn’t much room to maneuver, but the havoc-model droids were built for heavy attack and not maneuverability. He merely had to get around it, and he would be in the clear. He raced down the hall toward the droid, put his pistol away, and activated his mechanist gauntlet, a metallic device that wrapped around his arm and held numerous tools for his use.
The droid’s chain gun began to spin, firing a multitude of bullets at the Tsuna. Genos was able to stay out of the reach of the slugs, sliding slightly to the left as the droid fanned its gun across the hallway. He jumped off his board, and it slammed into the wall and then to the floor. Genos landed and dashed towards the droid, which turned slowly to aim back at him. He slid under the attacker and leaped onto its back. Holding fast with one hand, he placed four of his fingers together. Four panels slid over them on his gauntlet to create a crowbar that he used to pull the back of the havoc droid’s head off.
“Danger! Hostile tampering with unit,” the droid bellowed, reaching back with its electrified claw to try to grab at Genos. This was exactly what he wanted. He ducked out of the way of the strike, holding on to the droids opposite shoulder as he formed a “C” with the gauntleted hand. The gauntlet created a clamp that he used to catch the droid’s electrified prongs. He whipped it back, then plunged it into the machine’s head.
The droid thrashed around for a moment as Genos leaped off. The lights behind its visor disappeared, and it fell to the ground. He had to hurry since it would reboot soon. Quickly, he recovered his board and used it to move the droid near the door. He opened the mechanical chest and found its power unit. A small prong appeared when he raised his pointer finger. He used it to move some of the wiring around and then flicked the finger in the air. The prong disappeared, and a power drill took its pace. Genos used it to open a panel connected to the power unit. He flicked the finger again, and this time it changed to another prong with a four-point claw that he used to remove two small nodes in the panel.
The core began to emit immense heat, and Genos stood up and ran to the end of the hall. He took cover behind the wall and peeked around the corner to see the droid beginning to reactivate.
“Warning! Power overload. Explosion in—” The droid exploded before finishing its warning. Genos placed his hands over his ears and dropped to his knees as the force of the explosion threatened to knock him off his feet. When it died down, he looked back to see both the droid and the door in pieces. He could have done something a little more subtle, but now wasn’t the moment.
Conscious of the time, he ran through the doors and identified pieces of several other droids that were apparently also caught in the blast. Maybe this had been the correct option, after all. He saw a large window at the end of the hall. Inside was an orb with bright lights illuminating the space and several large tubes attached to it. This was the core, and the mission was to shut it down before it went critical.
He ran over to the control panel and saw a warning reading that there were only two minutes until detonation.
Genos breathed a sigh of relief. Plenty of time.
He activated the emergency venting and powered down several machines and devices throughout the facility, including the swarmers and scarabs, something he was sure kin Jaxon would approve of. Then he used his gauntlet to pry open the console, extending his finger again and summoning a pair of snippers.
With extra care, he cut through several wires, causing a slow shut down of the core. Too much at once could cause a power dump and they would be dealing with a different but equally problematic explosion.
“Intruder in the core room. All guardians requested for defense,” a synthetic voice announced through the speakers above the console.
Genos frowned. He should have taken precautions. With a shrug, he snipped the wire that allowed the voice to talk. It would still send out a warning, but at least it would be silent.
He finished his work and watched as the core began to cool. A quick glance at the panel showed the energy draining quickly. It would take a few more minutes, but they were in the clear.
“Intruder! Intruder! Must eliminate intruder,” a cacophony of several synthetic voices declared. Genos turned to see a small team of six guardian droids coming down the hall. He yanked his pistol out and hid behind an adjacent console. Now, all he had to do was survive.
As he prepared to turn and battle the incoming droids, he heard laser fire erupt down the hall. Metal hit the floor, followed by the electrical zaps of fried wires. He peeked around his defense to see Jaxon walking towards him, his rifle in one hand and Genos’ machine gun in the other. The guardian droids lay in a heap on the floor.
“Excellent display of violence, kin. I trust everything went well?” Genos asked as he stood and walked over to meet Jaxon.
“It certainly went better once the nuisance droids deactivated. Your doing?” Jaxon inquired as he tossed Genos’ machine gun back to him.
“Indeed. This console also had access to control the droids throughout this building. I had to shut down a few of the functions to cool the core down and figured that would be quite helpful,” he explained as he inspected his machine gun.
“A sound decision. Although I’m guessing that didn’t include all of the droids considering…” Jaxon motioned at the guardians he had just eliminated.
“Only some. I couldn’t risk shutting everything down at once.”
“Understood. It’ll give us something to do as we make our way out of here, assuming the core is deactivated?”
Genos looked over to the console now pried apart with severed wires strewn about. “Quite deactivated. It’ll take a couple more minutes to power down completely. Would you like to destroy it to be sure?”
“I’ll trust your judgment. The objective was simply to deactivate it before meltdown, and you accomplished that. We can head out,” Jaxon ordered.
“Following right behind you,” Genos acknowledged, raising his gun.
“And Genos? Well done.” Jaxon walked out through the destroyed doors and into the hall.
“Thank you, and to you as well, kin Jaxon. I am now looking forward to my future missions,” he whispered and followed Jaxon quickly as they began their retreat.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kaiden sat at his usual table, finishing off his pancakes as he looked around at the couple of hundred students around the plaza. Some sat in groups, talking excitedly, while others scarfed down their breakfast, in a hurry to head to the Animus Center. It was barely past six in the morning, and the Co-op tests had already begun.
Kaiden tapped his plastic fork against his cup of juice, looking around for Chiyo. It was kind of odd for her to be this late.
“You ready, partner?” Chief asked, appearing over his shoulder.
Kaiden gulped down the last bit of pancake. “More than I was for the Division test. But can’t say for sure. I don’t really know what we’re going to be dealing with.”
“You and Chiyo have run seven missions leading up to this. I’d have figured you’re pretty well prepared.”
He drank the last of his juice. “Just as long as we don’t have to deal with a flock of devil birds or a mechanical Kraken or some other weird crap, I think we’ll do fine.”
“Think about the points that would be worth, though,” Chief pointed out.
“You think I’ll get another rank-up by the end of this?” Kaiden asked, wiping a napkin across his lips before crumpling it up and tossing it on the tray.
“According to the rules, it is a possibility if you and Chiyo are among the top ten.”
“Top ten? That’s all it takes now? You had to be top three in the last test,” Kaiden grumbled. “Guess they’ll let anyone rank up nowadays.”
“You’ve been rank two for four months, wiseass,” Chief sneered. “Besides, it’s top ten overall. This isn’t done in groups, remember? You’ve gotta get top ten among all other duos.”
“Oh…well, that’s much more interesting.” Kaiden took another look around at the massive group of initiates. “Still, we’ve probably got this in the bag.”
“Good morning, Kaiden.” Chiyo took the bench across from Kaiden, setting down her tray and tablet. “I trust you are prepared for the tests?”
“Mornin’, Chiyo. I’m as good as can be. Though I could be a little more if you were able to…you know…”
“I researched a number of previous Co-op tests that involved soldiers and infiltrators as I said I would. There were a number of different variables but nothing that I would think we’d have issues with.”
“That’s gre— Wait, soldiers and infiltrators? Why soldiers in general? What about aces and infiltrators?” Kaiden asked.
“There weren’t any that I could find, even going back to when aces were originally called leaders. It would appear that we are coming into this test as a completely new type of Co-op team. I’m excited to see what will unfold,” she said nonchalantly as she added some fruit to her oatmeal.
“Nothing at all? Isn’t this academy like twenty-five years old or something? That seems highly unlikely.”
“Not really. Aces are the leaders of the soldiers, right? Most of them probably partnered up with another soldier or field class over the years. Infiltrators do their best work in the shadows, even better when they can get things done from far away. So it probably didn’t mix all that well for the greenhorns,” Chief interjected.
“An astute observation, Chief, and a good morning to you as well.” Chiyo waved a spoon in greeting.
“Howdy, Chiyo, it’s good to see—”
“Salutations, Kaiden and Chief. I wish you both the best of luck in the coming test.” Kaitō appeared in Chiyo’s tablet screen.
“Kaitō…yay,” Chief murmured, earning him an annoyed glance from Kaiden.
“I guess we’ll have to go in somewhat blind. But no big deal. Considering the scenarios we’ve run, I feel pretty good that we’ll have no problems with the test,” he stated firmly.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Chiyo warned. “These tests always have unique parameters, and they often use enemies and maps that we are unfamiliar with. The test is to see how well students are able to handle these unknown situations along with their cooperative abilities.”
“Well, we’ve got that down, for the most part, right? I’ll follow you all sneaky like until we get to the mainframe or whatever, then I’ll go off and have myself some fun and get the item we need to retrieve or the merc leader we need to kill off. We’ll be golden.”
“As much as I appreciate your optimism and the fact that this particular strategy has worked so well for us thus far, we should wait on these decisions until we are actually in the test,” she advised.
“Speaking of actually getting in the test…” Kaiden fished out his oculars. “Chief told me that some of my talent choices won’t really kick in until I get in the Animus, so if I start shakin’ like I’m caught in a paint mixer, that’s only me playing mental catch-up.”
“What talents did you select?” she asked.
Kaiden nodded to her tablet. Chiyo looked down to see the screen change to Kaiden’s talent tree, the new talents glowing with a dim light.
Deadshot: Increases natural aiming ability.
Status: ½
Increased Casting: Increases the range (15m) that the EI can cast and the distance between the user and EI can be before losing connection.
Status: 1/3
Strategic Mind: Learn dozens of strategies per upgrade and how to apply them in the field. Increasing your ability as a leader.
Status: 2/10
“You upgraded your Strategic Mind talent again,” she observed. “A wise choice. That will certainly prove helpful for the coming trial.”
“I chose that and the Increased Casting because of Chief. He wanted me to upgrade the Next-Gen talent, but considering what one point in that talent did to him… Well, I wasn’t in a rush. I choose those two as a compromise.”
“You simply can’t handle what I’ve become. It is understandable for a plebe,” Chief accused balefully.
“And the Deadshot?” Chiyo asked.
Kaiden whipped out his pistol and twirled it in the air. “It’s my primary skill. Always good to keep that nice and shiny.”
She nodded, looking at a group of students who went to toss their trash and head towards the Animus Center. “I have a request, Kaiden.”
Kaiden stopped twirling his pistol and slid it back in its holster. “Go ahead.”
“It will take a few more minutes for me to finish up. Since you seem to be done eating, would you head to the Center and sign us in? You will be given a colored chip that will let us know which group we will be in and when we will start.”
He picked up his tray. “I gotcha. See you in a bit.” He merged quickly into the crowd.
“You know, I don’t think that Chief likes me very much,” Kaitō commented.
“What makes you say that?” Chiyo asked as she spread some jam on her toast.
“I believe you would call it a vibe?”
She shrugged “Let’s play nice for now. We have enough to worry about with the test.”
“Are you truly that concerned, madame?”
Chiyo looked in the direction of the Animus Center. “It is always wise to be cautious… But considering who I’m with and how everything has gone, maybe not as much as I once was.”
Kaiden pushed his way through the crowd outside the Center. They were less of a line than a huddled mass, so he assumed it was a first come, first served thing. He made his way to a staff member who was surrounded by a couple of dozen other initiates, all clamoring for one of those chips.
“Hey! Watch yourself.” A blond-haired student scowled at him. He tried to elbow him out of the way, only for Kaiden to snatch the back of his jacket and fling him behind him. The hapless student was almost trampled by the other students behind them.
“What? You’re not gonna take his lunch money too?” Chief chuckled.
“Hey, that dude could end up facing down a merc company someday. That’s much worse than a little shove.”
“Not likely, a green circle means he’s in the Logistics division. Probably going to be in munitions, survey, or supplies. Might end up being in charge of a company that hands out bounties and missions. You know, someone you might be working for someday.”
Kaiden paused for a moment. “Maybe I should help him up…”
“Hey, Ace, you’re next,” the official called. Kaiden turned to see him looking right at him. He walked up to the staff member as the man looked back down at his tablet. “State your name and Co-op partner.”
“Kaiden Jericho. My partner is Chiyo Kana.”
The man nodded and punched the information into his tablet. He removed a small disk from a tube on his belt and slid it into the tablet. There was a small pause before the disk was ejected and he handed it to Kaiden. “That chip contains your profiles and is your entrance into the test, so don’t lose it. You’re in the silver group, and you’ll be called after the blue group.”
Kaiden nodded as he took the chip. “Appreciate it.”
The man smiled. “Good luck. You—Battle Medic—get over here.”
Kaiden walked away and headed into the Animus Center. He placed the disk in the pocket on the inside of his jacket and went to find a chair and wait for Chiyo. As he settled in, he opened his friend network and activated the tracker so Chiyo could find him easier. He leaned back to relax for a while before they were called. Considering the volume and the fact that he would have to wait until all members of the previous group had finished, it might be a while.
“Ah, friend Kaiden. Good morning to you.” He looked up to see Genos and Jaxon walking his way.
“Is the hallway in the Animus our special meeting place or were you hunting me down?” Kaiden quipped as he stood up and shook the Tsuna’s hand.
“I wanted to wish you well before the tests. Kin Jaxon and I are in the blue group and will be going in shortly,” Genos explained.
“Blue group, eh?” Kaiden mulled over this as he looked at the two cerulean-colored aliens. “That’s a bit ironic.”
“I noted this as well,” Jaxon stated dryly.
Kaiden chuckled softly. “You guys know where the others are?”
“Luke and Marlo, along with Silas and Izzy, are in the red group which is currently undergoing their tests. They should be out shortly. Flynn and Amber are in the silver group, according to the board.” Jaxon pointed to a large monitor behind Kaiden. He grunted in annoyance that he hadn’t seen it previously. “As for Raul and Cameron, I don’t believe they have arrived yet, so I assume they will take their test sometime in the afternoon if they don’t hurry.”
“They might have slept in. Not the most organized, those two.” Kaiden grinned.
“The tests span two days, so they can still take the test tomorrow if they do miss it. Though I believe they will be docked points if they don’t sign-in within the next two hours.” Jaxon frowned as he considered this.
“Maybe we should start looking for their replacements?” Kaiden suggested sarcastically.
Jaxon shook his head. “Do remember that they are two of the top soldiers in their classes. They may currently lack discipline, but they are not to be counted out.”
“Just wishful thinking, Jax. Besides, I don’t really want Cameron to fail. I wouldn’t have such a convenient punching bag, otherwise.”
“That would be tragic. Sparring partners are difficult to come by.” Genos made a sound that might have been a chortle.
Kaiden simply smiled and nodded.
“What about you, Kaiden? What group do you have?” Jaxon asked.
