Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 252
As the officer ran up the stairs, Mack placed a hand on Luke’s gauntlet to charge it as the two nodded to each other and raced up behind him. Cameron, Raul, and Silas joined them. Genos moved to follow but was stopped by Jaxon. “Defend them, kin. I will rejoin you when the shield is down.”
The engineer nodded and activated his cannon. “Of course. Be safe, kin Jaxon.”
The Tsuna ace nodded and followed the others. Chiyo walked in front of the remaining group of Indre, Cyra, Amber, and Genos. “We have a mission to complete,” she said and drew her SMG. “And more after that. Let’s get this done.”
Cyra nodded, took the marker out of the case, and holstered it on her back. “We’re right behind you.” They began to run. A loud rumble from above was followed by cheers and shouts from their comrades.
“I wonder if the R&D building will still be intact for us to do what we need to do,” Genos said, an edge of concern in his tone.
Chiyo looked over her shoulder and although her words were serious, there was a trace levity in her voice. “Why do you think I want to hurry?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“So what does it look like over there?” Wolfson asked as Kaiden joined him and the gang leaders on the top deck.
“Chiyo didn’t know too many details. She’s on a separate team to infiltrate the Academy to turn the shields off while the main force occupies the…everything else,” he explained and leaned against one of the railings on the side of the deck.
“They’ll have the shield down by the time we get there, right?” Desmond asked.
Zena stepped forward. “We’ll go ahead and send the flyers out. They are much faster than this ship and the shuttles.”
“It sounds good to me. You had those chips made, right?” the ace asked. “They’ll fall victim to the disruptors, otherwise.”
“We made a good number but didn’t really have the set-up to pump them out,” she replied. “They’ll be fine. We were able to scrounge up some frequency insulators. Those should work, right?”
He shrugged. “If you say so. I guess we’ll know if they stop flying and fall out of the air.” He turned to face the group. “Chiyo also mentioned to not get too close to the military. Sasha should have told them about the ship but you know they can get trigger-happy at the sight of enemy vessels, even the ones with new decorations.”
“I told you we should have made it more blue,” Desmond muttered.
She shrugged. “Yes, make us stand out more. Do remember that the Omegas are equally as interested in killing us.”
“Are there many ships besides the colossus?” Wolfson asked.
“She didn’t say for sure,” Kaiden replied. “But there is concern that they might get reinforcements. We know the AO has captured destroyers capable of jumping. I’m sure the Horde has a few ships to spare that can do the same.”
Desmond rubbed the back of his head. “It’ll be fine. We have reinforcements too, right?”
“Besides those other chapters that are lagging behind?” Kaiden asked. “If you are asking about the military, we hope they will send more. They still have to worry about all the other fights going on. Last I heard is that they’ve tried to hurry and install warp cores into several reconstructed or new vessels and send those over, although I’m not sure how one installs a warp core ‘quickly.’”
“Basically, we are the reinforcements,” Zena surmised.
“That is how I’ve looked at it.” The ace nodded. “The hope is we defeat them before reinforcements arrive, if they do at all. They are currently jamming long-range communication, but that’ll raise suspicion eventually. Hopefully, they only send a small force out to investigate that we can deal with easily instead of a fleet.”
Zena sighed and joined him at the rail. “There’s considerable hoping going on.”
“And there’s nothing wrong with hope, lady,” Wolfson stated. “It’s what keeps most of us going to get things done. And if it will end this battle quicker, I’d say let everyone rely on it all they please.”
Kaiden nodded. “That’s oddly endearing coming from you.”
The head officer smirked. “Sasha isn’t the only one with a knack for speeches, albeit only from time to time.”
Skyway fighters activated their boosts and streaked ahead of the assault ship. The ace looked through the front of the ship but saw nothing but ocean. They would have a better understanding of how the battle was going once they reported back and hopefully, they would say the shield was down as well.
“Did they have to take the fight to the plaza?” Cyra asked as they crossed to the back of the observation building. “We would have had a straight route through there.”
“I’m sure they need the room to maneuver,” Genos pointed out, checked around the corner, and motioned for them to follow. “And it is likely that it had the highest concentration of foes waiting as it is close to the center of the island. Even if they were not fighting, I doubt it would have been an easy crossing for us.”
“Touché,” she muttered and glanced around the island, taking note of the buildings. “I guess they haven’t bothered with repairs,” she said glumly. The ruin and devastation were a vivid reminder of the invasion.
“There was no need. They’ve only had the bots guarding the area and AO soldiers who come through are only here temporarily,” Chiyo replied and checked her HUD. “Make sure your helmet remains undamaged. The air in here is low since they solidified the shield. It’s basically your lifeline until we take it down.”
“I’ve kept an eye on the gauge,” Indre promised. “Besides, I have spares in my pack. I’m more worried about sniper shots than a bump to the head.”
Genos stopped and held a hand up. “Wait, Viola is picking something up.” He pointed into an alley on the left. “In here.”
The group hid hastily behind the wall and the Tsuna peeked out cautiously. Several droids appeared farther down the path, eight Arbiter bots led by two of the supers they had fought during the invasion. He looked at his teammates. “A group of bots is in the way. I shall deal with them while you keep going.”
“You plan to take them on alone?” Chiyo asked.
He shook his head and showed her a nano grenade. “Of course I will not. Now go.”
She nodded and led the others out as he pressed the switch when he estimated that the droids were close enough and tossed the grenade around the corner. He heard it burst and soon noticed four dots on his HUD to indicate how many he had captured. It would be enough. He held the trigger of his cannon to let it charge and when he spun out to fire, the bots had already begun to fight amongst themselves.
Luke’s hammer made violent impact with the ground and triggered a wave of kinetic energy that hurled several droids into the air, all of whom were quickly finished off by Raul and Cameron before they fell.
“Ha! Like that!” the titan roared as he swiped to his left and destroyed another droid’s chest. “Who’s next?” His challenge was met by a mech that lumbered toward them with surprising speed from the western path.
“You can’t keep your mouth shut, can you?” Cameron asked as he opened the vent on his rifle and reached for a thermal with his free hand. He stopped when Mack launched himself forward to bulldoze into the mech and release a discharge of energy that felled the giant bot.
The vanguard looked at him and held his hands up. “Cam, throw it here.”
The bounty hunter complied and he caught the grenade and shoved it into one of the small holes in his opponent’s chest. He powered his gauntlet and thumped it down to create a bigger explosion that he himself was caught up in.
“Shit, is he dead?” Cameron asked, closed the vent on his weapon, and took a shot at a droid that crawled up one of the buildings across the plaza.
Instead of dying, however, the vanguard appeared out of the smoke, his armor aglow as he landed in front of his teammates. “Damn, that was nice!” He balled his fist and let a sizzle of energy dart out.
“Where did you come from?” Luke asked as he twirled his hammer to let the kinetic energy accumulate. “How did you get up there?”
“A few of those damn droids got their hands on me and carried me up that building,” he explained and pointed to the structure in question behind him.
“Why didn’t you call for help?” Raul asked and replaced the magazine in his rifle.
“Didn’t you hear me cursing?” the vanguard asked.
Luke tapped his helmet. “I guess I did but I thought it was normal war cries.”
Mack laughed. “In a way, I guess so.”
Jaxon, Silas, and Haldt joined them. “More are coming,” the Tsuna warned and gestured to the east where at least twenty more droids appeared. A few fired a volley of energy blasts at the group that was blocked by the dome Mack created.
“Where the hell are all of these damn things coming from?” Raul asked. He opened a hatch on the top of his rifle and slid in a cartridge of ballistic rounds.
“I’m sure they have many stored in the warehouses and underground,” Haldt replied. “Along with however many they have on the colossus.”
Cameron, Raul, and Luke looked up. “I’ve kind of forgotten about that since we started fighting,” the heavy admitted.
“I’m blasting my barrier,” Mack called and thrust it out to knock the close-quarters bots away. Jaxon, Haldt, Silas, Cameron, and Raul all opened fire at the droids as Luke activated his gauntlet shield to protect the vanguard as he recharged.
A group of mechanicals tried to flank the group, but Raul noticed them break away. He switched to the ballistic rounds and when they reappeared from the other side of the logistics workshop, he fired twice to hit the chests of two droids, which immediately exploded and annihilated the others as well.
On the roof of the cafeteria, a lone attacker approached the edge. It’s right arm assumed the form of a sniper barrel and it aimed at Jaxon and fired. The laser shot was stopped by a blue shield held up by a recharged Mack. He formed the shield into an orb and launched it at the assassin to sever its head. “I hate sneaky little bastards like that.”
“I’m technically one of those sneaky little bastards, you know,” Cameron retorted.
The vanguard laughed as his fists began to glow. “Yeah, but you suck at it so it’s all good.”
With that, he and the titan went on the offensive. As another wave of bots raced toward them, Mack vaulted up and landed with supreme force as Luke drove his hammer into the ground at the same moment. The combined force created a wave to obliterate all of the attackers.
And while they managed to keep their adversaries at bay for now, in the hangars below that used to house the Academy’s shuttle, hundreds of droids began to activate.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Mack crushed an Arbiter bot underfoot and shoved another away as Luke’s hammer swung in to destroy it. “Get these damn bots—” The energy of his vanguard armor flared and he formed an orb between his gauntlets as a trio of mechanicals prepared to fire at him. “Out of my face!” He cast the orb and it intercepted the shots and exploded. The cascade of energy engulfed his attackers and several around them as the Nexus soldiers backed away.
“Watch your fire!” Raul called and took a moment to open the feed of his tracker drone in his HUD. “Shit. There are more on the way and I read more energy signatures coming from below around the docks.”
“You had to know they had more than this,” Haldt pointed out and vented his gun.
“Do we have to fall back?” Luke asked and spun his hammer in his hands. “I’m enjoying racking up my tally. Forty-seven so far.”
“Is that it?” Cameron snickered. “Fifty-eight for me.”
“What the hell? How have you kept pace?” Mack asked. “Luke and I have demolished them left and right.”
“That would be because Haldt, Jaxon, and I have worked almost all the other directions.” The bounty hunter chuckled. “Raul’s pulled his weight too, I guess.”
“Uh, guys,” Raul muttered and looked at them with alarm. “I’m getting signatures around almost the entire western half of the island. They just started showing up.”
The group all looked at one another. “Are they coming from below?” Haldt asked and the tracker nodded.
“I would imagine they’ve stored many of the droids below in case of an attack,” Jaxon said and closed the vent on his machine gun. “They must have activated them in response to our ambush. Either that or they are rather keen to eliminate our group.”
“We must have pissed them off royally.” Luke chuckled and swung his hammer before he flipped it over his shoulder. “We still have a good position and can take them, right?”
“Not a chance in hell,” Raul stated and sent the feed to his teammates’ helmets.
Cameron gave a whistle. “Damn, I don’t do this often but I gotta agree with Luke. These guys want us dead now.”
“It’s more likely they are being activated to assist with the fight outside the island,” Jaxon reasoned. “Although I’m sure they will deal with us along the way.”
Silas checked his belt. “This place needs to get repaired anyway,” he muttered and nodded to the packs on his and Haldt’s backs. “We had a plan in case of overwhelming odds, right?”
“Indeed.” The officer nodded, removed his pack, and placed it on the ground. “Everyone, take some from either my box or Silas’ and get the other group on the comm. Let’s find out how they are progressing.”
“Why are there still so many bots?” Indre shouted when another of her drones was shot out of the sky. “Dammit, there goes Too-Bee.”
Chiyo closed her holoscreen. “Kaitō will have us covered here in a moment,” she stated and readied her SMG. “We’re so close and only need to focus on taking the lab.”
“There’s something ironic about destroying most of my own creations,” Cyra muttered as she leaned around the corner and blasted a half-destroyed bot before she was forced to dart back to avoid several lasers. “Or at least creations I had a hand in creating. My guess is the professor would perform a eulogy or something if he was here.”
“It might be a situation I’m glad he’s not here for then,” the infiltrator stated and frowned when she received a notification of a comm call. “It’s the soldier group,” she said and answered. “Hello?”
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed already or not,” Cameron said, “but there’s a massive group of bots getting all warmed up down below and they look like they want to join the fun.”
“Dammit,” she whispered. “We’re only a few hundred yards away. We’ve been held up. There was a surprising amount of security around the R&D building.”
“They knew it was important, even with the professor taking most of the projects on the way out,” Amber suggested.
“Well, that and the shield. That’s very important,” Cyra added.
“We’re about to head out. We’ll make it, I promise,” the infiltrator assured him.
“Understood. We are gonna head toward the gate,” Cameron told her. “Meet us there. Hopefully, the army in the city will reach us before we get bum-rushed, but we’re taking option B right now. That’ll hopefully slow them somewhat.”
“But only somewhat,” she agreed before she signed off. “Kaitō, are you ready?”
“I’ve infiltrated six units so far, madame.” the EI said. “I can gather a few more in a couple of—”
“Time is of the essence,” she interrupted him and looked at her team. “We have to go now. Let’s take the lab, then we need to join Genos so we can meet the soldiers at the gate.”
“You couldn’t make contact with him while you hacked into the bots?” Indre asked.
Chiyo shook her head. “I think he was still busy.”
The Tsuna engineer took a moment to rest against the dilapidated wall of the logistics dorm. He dragged a few deep breaths as the two nano-hacked droids patrolled around him and stepped on the various parts of the couple of dozen bots he had destroyed. They had been tenacious. He had to admire their design, but even the most well-made machine could always be destroyed or repurposed. Still, a part of him did want to examine them after this was all over. They could prove to be a good base for redesigns of the Nexus security bots. But before all that, he should probably call Chiyo and inform her he would be on his way.
A rumble under the ground curtailed his moment of rest. The bots stopped moving and stood alert as a section of the earth began to ascend and a mech emerged. It lit up and the circle on its face turned blue as it took a step forward, then craned its ungainly head to look at the Tsuna and his stolen droids. He tilted his head as the mech’s arm cannon began to prime. This was an annoying predicament, but his mind began to dance with ideas. It could also prove interesting.
He would have to hold off on the call to his teammate for now, but he would come back bearing gifts if this went well.
The soldier team ran from the plaza and slapped silver boxes against various pillars, building walls, statues, and anything large along their path to the gate. Raul’s drone flew overhead so the tracker could keep an eye on any new developments.
The dozens of droids that flooded out of the warehouses in the harbor would certainly qualify as a new development.
“Step it up!” Raul shouted into the comms as he sent the feed to the group again. “They are coming for real now.”
“Damn. It looks like they were hiding the real shit.” Cameron scowled as he slapped one of the explosives against the fountain statue. “We will need back up unless the heavies think they can hold them off with their shields.”
“Hell yeah, we can!” Mack whooped as he ran down the center path to catch up with Raul and Haldt as Luke, Silas, Jaxon, and Cameron came up from behind.
