Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 259
His vision went white.
Chapter Forty-Six
“Sir, do you see that?” a military trooper asked and pointed to the center of the island. Sasha noticed that the fountain had moved several feet and more importantly, a large blue beam now seared through the sky and into the underside of the colossus.
In that moment, a message popped up from Wolfson to advise him that the beam would take anyone into the ship who stepped inside. The man smiled as three blue orbs traveled into the massive vessel, quickly followed by several more. He recognized the moment of choice and looked hastily at the battle below. With the aid of Janis’ droids that had now joined the fight, it had swung their way but they couldn’t afford to lose focus. His gaze returned to the enemy flagship and determination won through.
“Soldier,” he said to the trooper beside him, “can the military handle it from here with the Halo, Rider, and King assistance?”
“We’d fight on with or without them, sir,” the man responded with no hesitation.
The commander nodded and activated his comms. “All resistance members…Nexus students and faculty, if you can pull away from the fighting, head into the beam. It will take you to the ship. As chancellor, I will go to retrieve those taken from us. I feel most of you will wish to join me.”
In no time, dozens of messages of affirmation were sent to his HUD and he had to block the rest to avoid being overwhelmed. He holstered his rifle on his back and looked at the trooper. “Fight on. We will end this soon.”
The soldier saluted. “Don’t be in a rush. I’ll be glad to have more personal time taking it to the enemy.”
Sasha chuckled before he turned away, leapt off the building to land on the Academy grounds, and sprinted toward the beam.
When Kaiden’s vision returned, he stood in an ornate bay, the floor made of a silver material with black and gold walls. A few fighter ships were visible nearby and more importantly, droids.
“What the hell?” an Ark soldier demanded and scrambled for his pistol. The ace whipped Debonair out and fired several shots to eliminate him as Genos and Chiyo finally appeared.
“Heads up—enemies!” he warned, holstered his pistol, and charged a shot in his rifle. Genos charged a shot and tossed his spare machine gun to Chiyo. She snagged it in mid-air and fired on two advancing droids. The Tsuna fired at one of the docked ships, which immediately erupted and knocked over troops that surged forward as well as a crewman as he bolted away. Wolfson, Jaxon, Luke, and Raul were the next group to appear.
“Can’t I even stretch after having my body turned into atoms?” Luke complained, activated his bounce pack, and leapt into the fray.
“I’m not sure if that’s exactly how it works,” Raul muttered as he released another tracker drone and directed it to find the captured students while he took aim with his rifle and began to destroy the turrets above.
“I, for one, have cooled enough,” Jaxon stated and fired his machine gun in controlled bursts at enemy soldiers. “I am more than prepared to continue the fight.”
“Get out of the way!” Wolfson bellowed and blasted an enhanced droid in its chest. It wobbled as its core began to glow from the damage, then exploded. The man simply raced through the blast and drove a large gauntlet into the helmet of an enemy soldier.
The rest of the team soon followed. Indre appeared and flung several disks that attached to cases and the wing of another ship. She made sure she was clear and pressed a switch on her gauntlet that detonated them to scatter droids and troops as the vessel flipped and crushed several others.
Silas and Mack teleported in together. The vanguard created a wave of energy that hurled Ark soldiers into pillars and walls as the enforcer ran up to an activating mech, shot out the safety glass of the pilot’s seat, and lobbed a thermal in as he ran past. The jockey was unable to toss it out in time and the huge mechanical toppled when the grenade went off.
Cameron and Amber were last. The bounty hunter fired at the ceiling with his hook, hauled himself up, and swung around the hangar taking shots at anything his scope targeted. Amber eliminated a couple of droids with her pistol and a well-aimed shot shoved another off Mack’s back that had tried to force the vanguard to the ground. She drew an arc pistol and placed it against the generator on his armor, fired it, and charged him.
Mack looked down and nodded appreciatively. “Hell yeah!”
“Medics are here to make sure soldiers are at their best,” she stated. “Sometimes, that is healing and at other times, a quick burst of energy.”
He created a giant orb. “I feel great now,” he shouted as he hurled the orb at a craft that tried to take flight. The energy enveloped the fighter and crackled before it exploded.
“Do you think more will join us?” Luke asked as he pounded his hammer into the leg of an enhanced droid, then lifted his weapon up as his opponent fell and brought it down on its head.
“Oh, I’m certain of it,” Wolfson acknowledged as he thwacked an attacker with its own arm that he had ripped off. “We’re not the only ones who want to see these bastards fall.”
“Then let’s clear the room!” Kaiden shouted and fired a charged shot at a barrel of spare energy cores that resulted in a massive eruption that destroyed a good fifth of the bay.
“Sir, we’re under attack!” a technician shouted up to Nolan.
“I am well aware of that,” the Arbiter general retorted. “Where the hell are you, Dario?” He hissed in frustration. The monitor read no life signs but that couldn’t be right. The idiot must have damaged his armor’s OS. He couldn’t have fallen now—not at this crucial moment.
“No, sir, not the destroyers,” the technician explained. “I mean inside the ship itself. There is a battle in progress in the hangars.”
“What?” He looked at the man before he glanced hastily at his map of the ship. The section marked Hangar Six blinked red. “How did they get on board?” he demanded.
“Some kind of transporter, sir. We’re trying to shut it down but we haven’t seen a system like it before. It’s not like other teleporters and has created a direct link into the ship.”
“How many?” Nolan asked and stared at the techie. “How many are on board?”
“A small group right now, sir.”
“Right now?” he asked. “Are there more on the way? How many?”
“Well, sir, we don’t know. But from what we can piece together of this transporter, anyone can travel through it. We could potentially talk the entire number of enemy forces.”
Nolan’s heart stopped for a moment. This battle had still been theirs to win in his eyes only a couple of minutes before. Now, he felt a dread he hadn’t experienced in quite some time.
The feeling that he could lose chilled him to the bone.
Sasha appeared inside the hangar, his rifle at the ready, but what greeted him was fire, damaged droids, and moaning Ark soldiers. “They work quickly,” he commented dryly and took several steps forward. “Any units that join me inside the colossus, the first team has cleared the entrance. You have free access to the ship. Focus on finding the hostages and bring them to safety, taking out any hostiles that get in your way.”
“On it, sir.” While only one voice replied, at least thirty resistance members stepped through behind him and more appeared on their heels. “We’ve waited for this.”
The commander nodded and moved forward to follow the mayhem. “I’ve expected it.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
General Hartman watched as dozens of orbs streaked into the colossus. “It appears they made it,” he observed and a small smile settled on his lips. “It was a long-shot plan at best, and they still completed it without a fuss. Nexus students are something to admire.”
“General, the other destroyers are ready to warp in,” an ensign notified him. “Should I give the order?”
He turned and nodded. “Bring them in just in case but have our forces focus on defense. Destroy the enemy fighters and assist with the fighting on the ground. Let’s let the resistance take care of the colossus. We might even get a new ship out of it if I know the commander.”
The ensign saluted and ran off and Hartman continued to observe the fight. “Of course, he’s a chancellor now and this menace attacked his students. He may want blood more than a ship.”
“Raul, Indre, have you had any luck?” Kaiden asked as he took shelter behind a pillar. Genos moved out of his cover to fire a beam at oncoming assault droids.
“My drone is still looking and also dodging shots—much like I am,” Raul replied and fired at an enemy sniper on one of the rails above.
“I haven’t been able to get into their systems yet,” Indre explained. “How about you, Chiyo?”
“I haven’t found any maps,” the infiltrator stated. “But I have some weird readings from a large room above us. Some of them are similar to medical equipment we would use in the med-bay. Do these mean anything to you, Amber?” She sent the readouts to the battle-medic.
Amber scanned them quickly. “It looks like equipment we would use for life-support. While it could simply be their med-bay, there are way more here than would be practical for even a crew of this ship’s size.”
Chiyo nodded and marked the location on the map. “Raul, I’m sending you the coordinates. Take a look.”
“On it,” the tracker replied and blew the head off an Arbiter havoc droid before he ducked and took manual control of his drone. He found a small space he could fit the flying machine through and directed it to the floor above. It darted around troops that raced through the corridors to join the fight and when the door to the room opened as several men in white coats ran out, his drone flew in. “I see… Good God, dozens—no, hundreds of pods.” He looked at Kaiden and Genos. “They look like Animus pods.”
The ace thought of his confrontation with Flynn’s golem and how they made that work, and a perverse corruption of the Animus system made sense. “Call it a gut feeling, but that’s where we need to go.”
“These guys don’t let up!” Mack called as his shields began to falter under the relentless assault of the Ark soldiers and Arbiter droids.
Luke ran ahead of the vanguard and activated his gauntlet shield. “Focus on powering mine up!”
His teammate nodded and used one hand to maintain his barrier while the other faced Luke’s as energy flowed into it to increase the titan’s shield power and size. It would keep them at bay but they needed a way through.
Dozens of rifle shots came from behind, followed by hundreds of laser rounds and even two large blasts. The group looked back as resistance soldiers strode up the hallway. Sasha was in the lead, flanked by several other marksmen, numerous troops, and even a couple of mechs. One of the jockeys waved nonchalantly through his cracked window.
“Hell, it’s about time,” Wolfson snarked over his shoulder as he caught an Ark soldier by his arm, pounded him against a pillar, and let the body fall.
The commander knelt beside Kaiden as the soldiers began to force the Arbiter forces back. Most of the original group joined them in the assault. “It’s good to see you doing well,” the chancellor stated. “Have you had any luck finding the hostages?”
“We have a theory,” Chiyo told him.
The ace pointed up. “A big room above us has life-support equipment and hundreds of units that look like Animus pods.”
“I see.” Sasha nodded grimly. “From what you have told me about their golems, it would seem likely that they based the technology on the Animus golem link we had a hand in.”
“I had the same thought,” he replied.
“More are coming,” Genos informed them. “We should head up before they concentrate on this floor.”
“There are more resistance members running through the ship. It wouldn’t be a smart tactic to simply focus on one area,” the commander stated. “But we should get a move on, you are right.”
“Do you think we can break through?” Kaiden asked as another large blast from one of the resistance mechs went off.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t,” he responded. “Are you saying you would have been stuck here without our help?”
“Of course not,” he retorted with a smile. “But it will be much faster with the extra help.”
“Hey, are you coming?” Wolfson shouted at the group as he and the other troops had pushed all the way down the hall by this point.
“Then let us proceed.” Sasha stood and immediately fired at an enemy demolitionist who had his launcher trained on one of the mechs. Kaiden, Genos, and Chiyo followed as they made their way to the stairwell.
“Lena!” Nolan yelled into the comms. “How are things in your sector?”
“There are enemy soldiers in the hall,” she stated. “They are destroying everything. We only have several bots here and a few soldiers, and the EI chamber will be compromised soon.”
The general shook with rage. Most of his forces were on the ground or dealing with the military ships. He didn’t have the forces to quell these resistance troops who had boarded. He was coming to the realization that the colossus was compromised and would potentially fall into their hands now that his military ships were focused on the defensive. They would let the resistance capture it to gain not only the colossus but also all the information on board.
They were lost if this continued, but it didn’t mean he had to let them win either.
“Have Aurora activate the rapture protocol,” he ordered. “Then escape. Don’t allow yourself to be captured.”
“The rapture— That will…I guess we have no choice at this point,” she admitted. “But I can’t get through, not with that many enemy soldiers outside.”
“I said don’t allow yourself to be captured,” he ordered. “They could still use that mod in your head to stop the protocol. Do you believe Merrick would forgive you for that?”
Lena was silent before she took a shaking breath. “I understand. I will begin the protocol and they will not get me.”
Nolan nodded. “Understood. You have been an asset to the organization and will be remembered for it.” He signed off, checked to see if Damyen got his message, and instead, saw several messages from Omega commanders telling him they were on the way and were gathering together to warp in. He shut his monitors off and picked his rifle up from the side of his chair. “The rest of you, activate automated defenses and get to escape pods if you can. This ship will go down but it will be by our hands.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
“Sir, we have to go!” one of the lab techs shouted to the lead technician, who was busy working on the golem stasis program. “Enemy troops are already on the floor and heading this way.”
“Activate the turrets and bar the doors!” he shouted in response. “I have to purge the system.”
The technician recoiled. “That will kill everyone in the pods, sir,” he stated, aghast. “I know they may not see reason, but are we the monsters they believe us to be?”
“This is war, boy,” he said dismissively. “We are not to let them have any advantage. We do this for the good of the future of humanity—gah!” He fell, shot by a drone above. His colleague ran to help him up, fired a pistol with trembling hands, and finally knocked it out of the air. He helped the man up and blood poured down his leg down as he tried to apply pressure. The lead technician pointed at the console. “Finish it!” he ordered.
The technician looked up and frowned at the orange screens with a lock-out notification saying . “I c-can’t sir!” he stammered. “I think it’s been hacked.”
An explosion twenty yards away from the two at one of the front doors to the room ended the matter. Two other doors to the rear and western entrances soon followed and Nexus soldiers filed in. One stepped through the front entrance, dressed in blue light armor with mods and gear that clearly indicated an infiltrator.
She walked up to the two technicians and aimed a machine gun at them. “Don’t move,” she ordered, held a hand up, and waved it for a moment. The lock-out vanished as she controlled the console remotely to open the pods.
The resistance soldiers ran around the room to help those in the pods out. The captives all seemed exhausted, and some drew deep breaths as liquid drained out of the pods. Amber raced through the rows of units and helped whoever she could while she searched frantically for her friends. Silas, Raul, and Jaxon also helped in the search as Kaiden, Genos, Sasha, and Wolfson finally reached the room. Taller than the others, the head officer noticed a large man with a shaved head. “Marlo!” he called and pointed to the fourteenth row. Amber saw him, darted to the row, and almost fell as she knelt to help the demolitionist up.
“Marlo! Marlo, are you all right!” she asked.
He spat some of the liquid from the pod, shook his head, and placed a large hand on her back as Raul ran up to help him stand. “I had a…had a hell of a nap,” he wheezed as he spat a little more of the liquid. “How…you guys…doing?” he asked, a small smile on his lips.
She returned it. “We’re here for you.”
“Thanks for coming.” He chuckled but the sound was weak.
Silas raced through the chaos with Jaxon behind him. The Tsuna noticed a figure stumble against a pod six rows down. “Silas!” he called and pointed. “Look there.”
“Izzy!” the enforcer cried and rushed toward the scout, who leaned against a railing and tried to wipe some of the liquid off her hair and arms.
“Si?” she muttered, turned, and almost fell before he caught her.
“Take it easy,” he said and eased her into a seated position. “Are you all right? Did they do anything to you?”
“They carried me here with a mechanical bug, which wasn’t fun,” she moaned and brushed the liquid in irritation. “I don’t remember much after that. Did you guys get here quickly?”
