Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 239
The bounty hunter looked around the room but saw nothing that might fit the feral golem mentioned. A hasty peek behind him still revealed nothing and he reminded himself that he should hurry to achieve his other objective. Otherwise, his paranoia over possible monsters would get the better of him.
The battle looked fun and all, but they needed to end it. He traded out his laser fire, pressed a switch on his rifle as he shoved an ammo cartridge into his gun, and aimed at the demolitionist.
“Mack, get down!” he shouted. The vanguard immediately stopped and ducked as Cameron fired. He caught the enemy heavy with four shots and at first, they seemed to have no effect. Seconds later, they erupted into a large foam-like bubble that essentially glued him in place.
“Luke, your turn!” The bounty hunter turned as the titan flipped the switch on his hammer to release a wave of energy. His large adversary attempted to attack, only to be knocked back when Cameron fired four more shots to trap him in the same way as his comrade. He struggled uselessly against the restraint and yelled curses.
“What the hell are those?” Mack asked and gaped at the two disabled heavies.
“It’s something Raul suggested. I guess I’ll have to give him my compliments when we get back,” Cameron admitted and gestured for the others to follow. “Come on, let’s save Silas.”
Dred uttered a low, mocking chuckle as the enforcer pursued him across the factory. The merc flung several blades at him but he rolled beneath them and fired a shot. His adversary’s coarse laugh echoed as he disappeared. He picked up and examined one of the blades and once he zoomed in, he identified smaller rotating blades along the edge. “Nano-blades.”
“Fancy, huh?” Silas spun as Dred stepped out of the corner with a manic grin on his face as he twirled his main blade. He wore light armor colored in random patches of black and crimson. His weapon was indeed a curved dagger with a silver hilt, but the blade appeared to be made out of some kind of black metal. It was surprisingly long, around eleven inches, with several tally marks along the side.
There wouldn’t be any prizes for guessing what those meant.
“I was already gonna snuff you for what you saw here. We still need the element of surprise for now while our current boss is doing the whole diplomatic thing—not that it’s done much good as far as I can see,” the man stated and continued to twirl his blade carelessly. “But now, I’m a little mad that you keep shooting at me and I’m starting to take it personal.”
Silas readied his weapon and Dred studied it for a moment. “Nice gun you have there. I thought only the military had all the good stuff,” he said with a whistle of approval. The shotgun pulsed with a red light as he pulled the trigger slowly. “Pity about the damage on the body. It would fetch a nice price otherwise.”
“I can’t tell if you’re a serial killer or a pirate,” he retorted.
“I have many interests and as many vices too.” The merc flipped his dagger in the air, caught it by the blade, and presented the side to his opponent. “You probably saw the tally on the blade, right? That’s a little low, huh?” He smiled, let the blade fall, and grasped it by the hilt. “This one is new. I have two others on the ship, both marked up to fifty.”
“Why do you knife and sword guys always have to say dumb shit about your weapons?” His aim remained steady. “Use them, why don’t you?” He fired and Dred’s shields took the hit but he immediately disappeared once again.
Silas placed his right foot forward and drew his gun back, prepared for a strike.
Dred chuckled. “Do me a favor and last at least a few minutes, won’t ya?” His voice seemed to emanate from the entire room
“If you keep talking, you won’t last one,” he warned, a little concerned as to why he couldn’t pick up anything on thermal. He knew it must be some kind of mod, but he should also pick up an energy reading if it was a stealth generator, so what the hell was going on?
Something thrust into his back and his shields ruptured to knock the attacker off him. He spun as Dred grunted and leaned forward. The enforcer prepared to counter when he charged but instead, the man smiled, slipped into the shadows, and seemed to melt into the wall behind him.
Hastily, he checked his sides but the merc was nowhere to be seen. In the next moment, the hanging light above him plummeted. He flung himself aside and glanced up when something flashed above him to sever the cords to all the lights around him.
“Ya can’t figure it out, can ya?” Dred yelled as the last of the fittings shattered on the floor. Silas held his shotgun in one hand and slid his blade out. “With all your fancy tech, you can’t respect the classics.”
Something sliced into his side and he clenched his teeth and spun as he slashed with his blade, but to no effect. He removed three small orbs from his pouch, activated them, and threw them out. They flared to life and illuminated his surroundings seconds before Dred faded into a pillar. No, not the pillar, his brain corrected. The man vanished into the shadows themselves but his previous scornful comment triggered something now that he had a moment to think. Respect for the classics… He could have sworn he remembered a piece of tech Flynn had told him about. Then, it clicked into focus.
“I see your gimmick,” he muttered and held his blade ready.
“It won’t help you,” Dred countered. The merc’s blade cut cleanly into Silas’ shoulder and blood sprayed onto the wall behind him and onto his face.
He fell back, yanked several rods from his belt, and tightened his grasp to break their casing. When they lit up, he threw them around him in a circular perimeter and stretched a hand to his belt for a grenade. Shit, he only had one, he realized. Well, he had to make it count, then.
“Do you think a few lights will help you?” his adversary questioned mockingly. “I guess you're looking for anything to help, aren’t ya? But you can’t run, not in here and not from me.”
“What kind of things have you done with that blade to make you talk about it so lovingly?” Silas chided.
“What I’ve done to you. I’ve done it for years now,” the man replied and again, his voice seemed to echo all around him.
The lights on the rods were bright but they wouldn’t last too long. While they were still working, the area they illuminated would soon shrink. His safe zone had already decreased. He stumbled when something thumped into his arm and he scowled at an old gear on the ground, thrown from the darkness.
“So you’re down to throwing trash?” he said, his tone edged with a challenge. “You can’t fight me unless you're cloaked in darkness.”
“Look who’s talking about their happy place,” Dred mocked. “But all right, have it your way.”
Silas looked up to the only place his enemy could safely attack from. His intuition was right as the killer plunged toward him. The enforcer dropped his shotgun and stabbed above him with his own blade. Dred met the strike with his dagger and parried it deftly. The man landed and rolled and he tried to stab into his shoulder while he was distracted, but his adversary recovered quickly enough to sidestep it. The merc tried to cut him and he blocked hastily and the blade slid along the edge of his knife.
Dred pushed him off before he kneed him in the stomach and drove the hilt of his dagger into his temple. The enforcer fell heavily and grasped the gear before his attacker could thrust forward to deliver the final blow. He threw it hard and caught the Omega in the chest. The man toppled onto his knees and coughed as he tried to vanish once again.
“I got you now, Omega scum!” He snatched the grenade from his belt and lobbed it high. It detonated into a bright light and the merc shouted in surprise as the entire room lit up. Silas scrambled to his feet, his visor shaded, and surged forward into the attack. Dred, blinded, spun and raised his blade for a strike.
An agonized yell issued from the merc when the light flared brightly for a moment before it began to dim rapidly. He curled on the floor and held what was now the stump of a leg.
“Damn,” Silas muttered and gaped at the pool of blade surrounding his opponent.
“What the hell did you do?” the man cried in rage and pain.
“It’s a spark grenade. Some call it an artificial sun,” Silas said casually. “I can see why.”
“You cut my bleedin’ foot off, you bastard!” he retorted angrily.
“And you want me to feel bad about that?” The enforcer glanced around for the severed appendage. “Weren’t you talking about snuffing me?”
Dred continued to moan and curse and spat on Silas’ boot. He repaid the act by stabbing him in one of his arms, which triggered another wave of insults. “I can keep this going, or you can buy yourself more time by telling me what your plans are.”
The Omega rolled over and extended his hand, which held another blade. “To hell with you! I won’t tell you a damn thing even if it costs me my life.”
“I never said that was the deal,” he pointed out and drew his heavy pistol. “I’ll make it quicker if you tell me where they are making those golems.”
In response, the man clenched his teeth and rolled over to finally reveal the device on the back of his belt. The shadow reflector was an old model of stealth generator that used special lighting to warp darkness and shadows to make the user almost invisible. “Sod off! You won’t get me to talk and you won’t catch me.”
“It won’t matter. You won’t escape.” With that, Silas fired several shots into Dred’s body that was now partially in and out of the shadows. It slumped, motionless, and the raider lowered his weapon.
Satisfied with the result, he turned to locate his shotgun but paused to answer a call on his comm.
“Hello? Silas?” Cameron asked. “Are you dead yet?”
“Not quite. The other guy is, however.” He winced when he tried to roll his shoulder and glanced at Dred’s corpse “I tried to talk it out but it didn’t go so well.”
“Ah, shit. I guess that means we have to keep at least one of our guys?” The bounty hunter sighed.
“One of your— Are you guys all right?” He walked quickly to retrieve his shotgun. “You didn’t run into any of those golems, did you?”
“No, we didn’t. Not yet, anyway, and I’m not sure I want to,” his teammate admitted.
“You really don’t,” he replied and holstered his weapon on his back. “They aren’t hard to kill but damn if they aren’t unsettling.”
“Make sure to get pictures if you can. Maybe we can bring one of the bodies.”
“I should have video of them, but I’m actually almost at the place where I —” When he approached the far side where he’d left the corpses, a terrible stench permeated the air and almost choked him, even with his helmet on. “God, what the hell is that?” He gaped at where the bodies of the ghouls should be but instead, there was nothing but the suits and murky puddles of a white liquid tinged with streaks of red. “Dammit.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I wanted to take a flesh sample, at least, but it doesn’t look like I’ll get even that much.” Silas took a vial from his belt and fought to suppress his gag reflex as he scooped some of the liquid and capped the vial hastily.
“When we get these Omegas to base, do you wanna take a ship and head over to that lab we saw?” Cameron asked. “I checked my messages and it looks like the commander sent someone to take a look. We could back them up.”
“If they already have someone on it, we should focus on continuing rescue efforts,” Silas replied, but as he exited the room, a thought occurred to him. “Wait, Chancellor Sasha sent a message directly to us?” He opened his own messages and saw the one Cameron had mentioned. “He would usually send a message to the outpost and they would tell us. It makes me wonder—”
“Who is going to the lab?” the bounty hunter interjected. “Do you wanna take a guess?”
Silas didn’t have to guess as he read to the bottom of the message. “Okay, a change of plans. It’s been a while since we’ve worked together with him.”
Chapter Nine
“This ship is cramped,” Kaiden muttered as he adjusted his seat. They currently crossed Californian skies but not in Wolfson’s drop ship or any other for that matter. Instead, they used a two-seat fighter craft, a Corsair model on loan from one of Julio’s acquaintances and one of a number of ships they borrowed from or through their friend and contact.
“This ship was built with two pilots wearing G-suits in mind,” Wolfson said and thumped the chest of his armor a couple of times. “Not two soldiers in full gear.”
“And the reason Haldt had to take your ship and we couldn’t?” The ace shifted one leg against the side of the wall in an effort to adjust his position. “There were numerous Nexus shuttles available. I don’t see why it had to be yours.”
“None of the armed shuttles were available and I wouldn’t send him and his team out with no guns,” the head officer replied and checked one of the screens. “Not where they are going.”
“They were headed to Chicago, right?” he asked Chief in a quieter tone.
“Yeah, and that was one of the places battered by Black Lake during the initial invasion,” Chief stated. “They had deaths in the five digits in only a week in the early stages of fighting. After evac and everything, the west side is mostly deserted except for the Omega Horde and other mercs out to make some quick cash courtesy of our new buddies.”
Kaiden clenched his teeth and restrained a growl when he thought of their enemy. “I think I liked the AO better when they were only a conspiracy.” He sighed.
“Honestly, so did I,” Wolfson agreed and pulled the ace out of his thoughts. “I’d much rather I was the crazy one, not the world.”
The younger man looked out the window. The sun set on the horizon as they flew over a highway littered with abandoned vehicles. Wrecks of ships and buildings were visible too as if to reinforce the impression of utter devastation. “They don’t have the whole planet, right? Some places have to have peace.”
“I’m sure there are many. They’ve focused on the major cities but we’re fighting to make sure they get no farther and to kick them back.” Wolfson looked at him. “Right, boyo?”
He nodded grimly but before he could respond, he received a message. “Silas? He’s the one who reported the lab in the first place, right?”
“Yeah,” Chief said. “I’ll put him…huh, something is wrong. I have trouble holding a connection.”
“Kaid...we…can you…” Silas’ voice came in clipped fragments and sounded quiet like he spoke at distance from his mic. The connection ended abruptly only seconds later.
“What’s happening, Chief?” Kaiden asked as he straightened and retrieved his rifle. It was awkward in the cramped space but he’d rather have it in hand than be caught weaponless. He glanced at his companion, then looked around the cockpit. “There’s a jammer or something nearby.”
“I have a feeling similar to that distorter at the Academy,” the EI explained.
“Ah, shit. Wolfson, how’s the ship?” He squinted and tried to look at the console over the massive shoulder plate of the other soldier.
“Better than you would think it would be,” the man muttered and tapped the various screens displayed. “There’s definitely a dip in power and comms are out, but the disrupter was able to scuttle the entire island back then. We’re not plummeting yet, though.”
“It’s certainly the same wave but it isn’t as powerful…although I feel more of them the closer we get,” Chief clarified. “My guess would be they’ve made smaller versions, probably for portability and so they wouldn’t be as easy to detect until you stumbled into their field.”
“Are you doing all right, Chief?” the ace asked, although he noticed his HUD had so far remained unaffected.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Have you built a tolerance after having to deal with it a couple of times?”
“Nah…well, kinda. These are weaker, for one. But I learned how to counteract them by shifting my own channels. The waves work by essentially giving an electronic device what you could describe as a nervous breakdown by— What’s with that weird look?”
Kaiden shook his head. “Sorry, but you learned how to do this from where? Did Laurie have a chance to upgrade you before they jetted him out?”
“It’s from Aurora’s files,” the EI answered. “The ones he said he wanted us to look at since she was taken and I was now…well, the closest thing we had to a second option.”
“Ah, right.” He sighed. “I guess the bright side is that you won’t be all that easy to hack, huh?”
Chief’s eye narrowed. “It was believed she wouldn’t be either.”
The ace slowly nodded and cradled his weapon closer to his chest. “True, but you can’t be stolen so easily. You’re a part of me, so unless they crack my skull open and dig out your chip—”
“Or they find a way to absorb me like they did her and you suddenly go brain-dead when the pathways I help to maintain suddenly give out.”
An uncomfortable silence followed. This was an option he hadn’t really given much thought to. “Stick around in here unless I say otherwise.”
“That’s the usual plan, partner.”
“I’m losing more power,” Wolfson stated. “We need to find a place to land as we’re close now and will be in the Omega Horde’s territory soon.”
“We’ll keep a lookout, then. Chief, is there any way you can help while our radar is on the fritz?”
“The most I can do right now is try to boost the radar’s capabilities while we ride through the disruption waves. When I have to switch my channels constantly, I can’t access most of my fancier abilities.”
Kaiden bit his lip in annoyance. “When we get on the ground, we need to try to destroy these things.”
“I guess from all that mutterin’, Chief can’t help?” Wolfson asked.
