Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 244
The destroyer that had been knocked into the colossus was pushed off with tremendous force when the ship’s shields were charged in that area. While much of the destroyer’s starboard armor had been destroyed in the crash, it was still able to fly. The Tempests that had fired upon them didn’t stay to celebrate their victory and tried to retreat quickly as the Mavericks resumed their positions. It appeared they were so focused on the stolen vessels that they had forgotten the Omega Horde destroyers that had not reached the battle but now approached from behind the Mavericks.
They were equipped with modified cannons and more energy to spare and launched an assault on the two Tempests as they tried to spin away. Both ships fell victim to the combined attack. They had eliminated one destroyer, three assault ships, and some corsairs, but the other Mavericks were still airborne and the four new destroyers were Tempest class themselves. Not only that, they were fresh, unlike the WCM destroyers at this point.
And the military’s tactic had, unfortunately, given the Omega Horde an idea.
The four destroyers took their positions and aimed at their counterparts that were still focused on the colossus. They lined their sights up so their own nova shots would collide in the middle of the air space between the five destroyers that targeted the large vessel. They fired on orders, their collective power much stronger than what the WCM had delivered as their shields were mostly still full and so had more energy to spare. When all four collided, the resultant explosion was enormous. At least two of the military destroyers were immediately annihilated. One was almost melted in half as it had no shields remaining to absorb the blast.
Nolan took the opportunity and the sentries were sent out again. Instead of engaging the fighters, they headed farther away, followed by bombers, toward a distant shape that moved slowly closer to the colossus. The haste with which the military had completed construction of the Dreadnaught in secret to have it ready for this attack proved to be a costly error. The unfinished point defense system allowed the enemy through undetected, and with the fighter craft engaged in the battle, the large vessel was entirely vulnerable. The bombers reached the Dreadnaught first and instantly fired missiles and dropped bombs along the massive vessel, all of which were absorbed by the shield. They focused their attack on the front of the ship and particularly around the cannon.
This was when the sentries engaged. The smaller drones all coalesced into a swarm that flew directly at the large weapon, impacted against the shields, and erupted. All two hundred and seventeen sentries careened into the cannon, one after another, and eventually destroyed the shields and entered the maw of the main barrel. It wouldn’t be enough to destroy it, of course, but the onslaught served its purpose.
The bombers couldn’t make a run at it as the military fighters had fallen back to protect the Dreadnaught. Even if the pilots were disposable golems and flew much more recklessly than a normal pilot concerned with survival, they were low on munitions and needed to restock. But the point wasn’t to simply be a suicide run to try to destroy the cannon. That would cost too many resources. No, Nolan knew that wasn’t the optimal choice. He merely needed a few more precious seconds and although the attack didn’t destroy the weapon, the damage did mean it had trouble charging. As the Dreadnaught broke through the cloud line and approached the colossus, it had only begun to charge its cannon and the progress was slow.
“Main cannon functional for one blast,” Aurora notified Nolan. “Would you still like a scattershot, General?”
“The destroyers are mostly dealt with,” he stated and a smile settled on his lips for the first time since the destruction of the city the previous day. “Focus fire on the Dreadnaught. Let them know that even when it is not optimal, our might is more than they can ever bear.”
“Understood. Taking control of battle functions,” the EI stated and a crosshair appeared on the front window of the main deck. “Initiating cannon.” A circle formed slowly around the crosshair, met at the top, and began to expand “Ready to fire. Increasing power.”
The general’s eyes narrowed as the circle solidified to white to indicate that it had reached its peak of available power. “Fire.”
The red light almost blinded anyone who looked at the shot and the echoed boom from the cannon as it fired always rattled the bones of those within. A large red beam rocketed into the front of the Dreadnaught and continued along its deadly trajectory. Smoke, fire, and red plumes surged from the side of the WCM vessel as the beam coursed through it. The ship seemed to collapse in on itself for a moment before it disintegrated in a massive fireball. The beam traveled on and Nolan and everyone onboard watched it disappear into the distance.
The general stood, calm and satisfied, and began to step down from his seat and head out of the deck. “Sir?” one of the technicians called. “What should we do with any remaining hostiles? I’m hailed by the remaining destroyers, possibly for a surrender?”
“Deny them,” he stated flatly. “Tell our men to destroy them, as well as any personal ships foolish enough to stay here. Send every remaining military ship to the waters below.” He reached the exit and glanced over his shoulder as the doors opened and he stepped out. “Let the wreckage be a memorial to our triumph and their utter failure.”
With that, he left the crew to their orders and all felt a small chill from the general’s haunting words.
Chapter Eighteen
“My God…” a shocked voice uttered. A few people sobbed and others fell to their knees. Kaiden turned away. The only thing left to watch from the feed was the sight of the destroyer that hosted it attacked and obliterated by the remaining enemy forces. It wasn’t something he wished to see. While it wasn’t something anyone did, some were either in shock from watching the destruction of the Dreadnaught or were driven by some other morbid reason—maybe watching to see the full capabilities of the enemy. All he took from it was that unless they could bring the full might of the military to bear on them at once, the colossus would not be destroyed by an aerial ambush.
A hand grasped his shoulder and he turned quickly. Cyra motioned for him to follow her. “We have a call, Kaiden,” she stated. “From the professor.”
“Ah, Kaiden. It’s good to see you after so long.” Laurie’s hologram greeted them cheerily as Kaiden and Cyra walked into a room with Sasha, Wolfson, Genos, and Jaxon.
“It’s good to hear from you as well, Prof,” he responded. “I was worried and thought the military had dragged you off to a secret base and we’d never hear from you again.”
“It’s not entirely incorrect.” The man sighed. “This is actually my first call to the outside world besides talking to other military or scientific officials.”
“What do you require, Laurie?” Sasha asked, his arms folded.
“A good wine and a massage, really, but I assume you asked why I called?” The professor chuckled and his fatigue was very evident in the laugh. He certainly was being run into the ground, it seemed.
“Do you have any news—something positive?” Kaiden asked. “I’ve just seen one of the WCM’s Dreadnaughts get blown out of the sky.”
Laurie frowned and nodded. “Yes, I have been informed of that. I’m no great strategist, but the attacks that are based on pure might will not solve every situation, especially against that colossus of theirs. Once we discovered how to bypass their automated hacking program, they thought it would be enough to turn the tide while I and almost everyone else here simply saw it as a small step.”
“You would be correct,” Sasha agreed. “The AO would not be in the position they are in with a couple of simple tricks. They have might as well, maybe not as much as the military but they certainly have enough to be a menace. And the military also has to deal with the populace and is far more widely spread. My guess is that many in the higher command have grown used to all problems being a simple fix. They’ve grown comfortable over the decades of relative peace outside the occasional terrorist scrap.”
“Please speak louder. Maybe one of them will hear you and actually understand,” the other man muttered. “I’ve said virtually the same thing all this time while here.”
“It’s weird to hear that Laurie has been the voice of reason,” Wolfson interjected as he moved to the corner of the room and leaned against the wall.
The professor coughed and refocused. “As much fun as it is to gossip, I really should answer your first question,” he stated, his expression serious. “Although it is kind of related. I wanted to check on the missions I requested for the retrieval of the sat-marker and energy-draining device?”
“I actually have the energy drainer right here,” Kaiden said and held the case up. “I didn’t realize it was you who posted the mission.”
“Technically, it was my request but some postmaster sent it to you, I think,” Laurie said and glanced at the others. “And the sat-marker?”
“We acquired it,” Jaxon said. “It is currently being studied by a team of technicians led by Cyra.”
“Ah, well done.” Laurie pursed his lips and focused on his assistant. “I assume I missed your report?”
She waved dismissively. “And I guess you’ve been busy.”
He nodded. “Very much so, but I still shouldn’t slack. Thank you for picking up my pieces. How goes the reconfiguration?”
“I had to get a cracker in to mod it and change the signal.” Cyra moved to stand beside Kaiden and gestured at the case, which he handed to her. “This should hopefully be much simpler. You have identified the changes to the Nexus shields, right?”
“It was more of a pain than I had thought,” the professor admitted. When his gaze darted aside briefly, the ace took it to mean someone was hurt or worse in recovering that information. “Honestly, there weren’t many differences from my design when all is said and done. But they can increase the potency and solidification of the shielding because there’s no one inside who needs to breathe, which is convenient.” He pointed to the case. “Get the device working. I’ll send you the specs for the changes and when the colossus arrives, you’ll be ready to infiltrate the island.”
Kaiden’s heartbeat quickened momentarily in excitement but a nagging concern remained. “I hope the attack didn’t scare them off,” he said and glanced at Sasha and Wolfson. “I’m also pissed that no one seemed to know it was happening. At least no one out there in the lobby who watched it go down.”
“I didn’t either,” the commander replied. “None of my contacts mentioned it. Right now, the military network is rather loose with both central hubs currently offline. Before Laurie confirmed it, I thought it was the plan of a separate faction—or maybe several that came together and thought they had the arms to confront it. Maybe it was a spontaneous attack in retaliation for the destruction of the city the other day.”
“Getting a Dreadnaught isn’t really a spontaneous move,” Wolfson pointed out and looked at the professor. “It’s hard to hide a Dreadnaught. Where the hell did that come from, Laurie?”
“It was built in secret in a nautical base off the Gulf of California,” the other man revealed, “and was only completed ten days ago. It wasn’t hidden so much as it was turned on immediately before the attack, used a gate to make the jump out of the base, and appeared off the coast of San Diego.”
“We have gates?” Genos asked. “I was under the impression that all gates were offline once the Arbiters took over the embassy.”
“There’s nothing we can do about the interstellar gates at this point,” Laurie said. “But the gates we have on Earth for intercontinental travel or for ships that can’t make jumps can be repurposed if you have a power source and the proper connection keys.” His face fell slightly and he shook his head. “Unfortunately, the base that housed many of the keys had been ransacked during the initial invasion, along with many of the gates being destroyed by the Arbiters in the last couple of months. We have a few well-guarded and are looking for more connection keys. But that’s not for you to worry about right now. It was something that gave me an idea on how you can get on the colossus.”
“We won’t fly in?” Kaiden asked.
Laurie, Sasha, and Wolfson looked at him, frowned, and shook their heads. “Do you really think that would work?” the professor asked.
He looked away and folded his arms. “I didn’t see another option unless we had a teleporter or something.”
“Well, I don’t have anything, but the island does have a teleporter.”
Kaiden, Genos, and Jaxon stared at him. “Really now?” Genos asked. “Is it still operational?”
“It’s a small teleporter meant for quick extraction and things like that and still needs connection keys, but someone is handling that,” the man clarified. “As for what the AO is trying to get from this vault, intel appears to indicate it is the serum.”
“The serum?” Sasha recoiled, his normally calm demeanor shaken in a moment of surprise. “Is it still even usable at this point?
“What serum?” Genos asked.
The ace looked at the Nexus faculty members. “What he said.”
Laurie glanced over both shoulders to check if anyone was around him. “An enhancement serum, one designed to turn a normal man into…well, something quite far off the current evolutionary path.”
“What the hell would we have something like that for?” Kaiden demanded.
“Because of what this vault really keeps secret,” Wolfson said, his eyes narrowed. “The abandoned facility that was the original Academy.”
“You built Nexus over the old bones of a eugenics lab?” The ace regarded them with an expression of disbelief.
“Not I!” Laurie protested. “Or any of us. Wolfson here is the oldest and he was a child when it was originally built.”
“It wasn’t exactly a eugenics lab, although in terms of what it tried to accomplish, it wasn’t much better either,” the commander admitted. “Many of these devices were considered too important to destroy for one reason or another. Everyone felt it was better to hide them beneath a military Academy where there is constant protection and an unassuming façade to go along with that.”
“It still seems a dangerous idea,” Genos pointed out. “Was there no other place they could hide these devices and weapons?”
“I’ve brought that up to the board before,” Wolfson stated, his expression grim. “The other plan was to put it on Terra.”
The Tsuna engineer nodded and looked a little sheepish. “I see. Then they would have it by now.”
“Presumably, but maybe they wouldn’t have simply destroyed Terra if they were trying to retrieve it,” Laurie suggested. “Who knows?”
Kaiden shrugged “I guess it’s worked well so far. Do you think they’ll finally break in this time?”
The professor’s hologram raised a hand and several holoscreens appeared to display footage of Arbiter bots and Ark soldiers moving through various tunnels. “One of the few things I have been able to maintain is a connection to the cameras in the tunnels leading below the island,” he explained. The monitor on the top right showed a soldier pointing his pistol at the screen and he fired before it went black. “Unfortunately, they have an easy solution to that.” The screens vanished but a larger one appeared to display only the static image of a massive metal door. “They are at the final gate. It requires the right codes, personnel, and quite a few other necessities to open. I highly doubt they have any of these as they need at least four of ten specified people and several are dead, I’m here, and two are in that room with you.”
Kaiden pointed to Wolfson and Sasha, who simply nodded.
“And the codes change daily. Since I don’t have my personal computer, I’m not even aware of what they are. Based on that, I’m sure they will attempt the brute force route.”
“That looks damn strong,” Kaiden noted. “Do they even have something that can get through it? It’s not like they can have the colossus blast it down…can they?”
“I’m sure they would have tried that by now if they could,” the commander replied. “They have been wearing it down with several different cannons, explosives, acids, and many other things. My guess is they are bringing the device that will finally let them through.”
“Which will be the first part of your mission,” Laurie explained. “You will infiltrate the island and follow them to the old Academy. Destroy or recover whatever they are trying to take, then use the teleporter to get onto their ship. Once I have the connection keys, I will set them up—or Cyra or someone of exceptional skill will in my place.”
“I have a list if you’d like,” she offered.
“Hold on a second—how do we get in there?” the ace asked. “Simply follow them? If they use this big tunnel, I think we’ll be seen right away. I don’t mind fighting through, but we won’t be able to keep our arrival a secret.”
“I have no issue with fighting either,” Jaxon agreed. “However, assuming they are able to get in, they may simply hurry to retrieve this serum and retreat. Or they could lay in wait to trap us. It could lead to any number of complications.”
“You’ll use the express route,” the professor told them. “The tunnel may be the primary route, but there is a secret passage located in the main building. It will require the chancellor codes to access, but I assume you won’t have a problem getting those now, will you?” He looked at Sasha as he finished the question.
“Those codes change as well, but I still have emergency codes that can be used to access the chancellor’s computer if it is still active.”
“It would be more convenient and practical for them to keep it if they still want to run all the systems from a central station,” Wolfson pointed out.
“Then we have a more practical way in,” Jaxon agreed.
“So now, it all depends on the guys going to get the keys, then?” Kaiden asked and nodded. “Will they be back soon?”
