Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 261
“I can control basic systems but there’s nothing I can do about the core,” Chief explained as Kaiden and his team continued to search the room.
“Kaitō can’t manage more than the closest systems. There is no central OS anymore,” Chiyo stated. “We need to leave.”
“Judging from the size of this ship, the expected blast of this vessel once it destructs will be…quite immense.” Genos said and looked at his teammates. “I am unsure if we can make it to safety in time.”
“Like hell are we dying here!” Kaiden retorted. “Chief, controlling what you can, do you think we can—”
“Chiyo, are you there?” Indre shouted into the comms.
“I’m here, what do you need Indre?” the infiltrator asked.
“I still have access to the teleporter so I can widen the beam and teleport the rest of us out of here, but we need to get back to the station to mark a new location.”
She frowned. “That will get us off the ship but I’m not sure if we can work quickly enough to move the new location sufficiently in time. We were lucky in that our initial target was right above us.” She took a deep breath. “But we have few options. We should try.”
“Kaiden,” Sasha interrupted. “I need you to send Chief to Wolfson. He’s using an EI pad borrowed from one of the soldiers. I’ll give you the ID.”
“Wolfson doesn’t use EIs. What’s going on?” Kaiden asked as the pad ID appeared in his HUD.
“Wolfson is on the command deck and says he can control the ship but the manual controls are locked out. Chief should be able to open them, correct?”
“I can, with a link. Getting me on the pad will speed it up,” Chief affirmed.
“Get on it,” the ace said,
The EI nodded. “I’m heading out, partner. I’ll be back soon.” He disappeared from the HUD and Kaiden stood.
“Let’s get going.”
Chief appeared on the pad. “Howdy.”
“There is no time for pleasantries, bubble boy,” Wolfson retorted and cast Chief into the system. “Open this thing up!”
“Roger that.” He set to work and the system activated in only a few seconds. “It’s open but there is no autopilot.”
“Ah, hell, things can never be easy. can they?” The head officer took hold of the controls. “I’ll get this sucker as far away as I can. Look for a warp system while you’re in there. We can set this ship to jump and bail out.”
“On it.”
He began to force the controls forward. While there was significant resistance, he felt the ship move. With little time at his disposal, he aimed toward the ocean and hoped to get it out far enough that the only casualties would be the guppies.
“There is a warp system but with how much power is being siphoned, it would blow almost immediately after the jump.”
“That’s fine by me,” Wolfson replied. “I’ll set it for some remote location.”
“You can’t. The warp requires manual control as there is no EI to control it. I tried myself but it seems Aurora fried the systems before deactivating. I can’t insert myself.” He began to blink red. “I sense a warp marker. More than a dozen ships will be headed here in about fifteen minutes.”
“Right, the Horde and the AO cronies,” Wolfson said in a low tone. “Even if we get everyone out, they’ll push through and more will die. Then they’ll head to Seattle and more will die there too…far more than only one.”
“Only one?” Chief asked and his eye widened. “Wolfson, you can’t mean to—”
“You’re an advanced intelligence, right?” the man remarked. “Can you think of something better?”
Chief’s eye shrunk. “To my knowledge, this would actually be the best outcome, especially if you were to warp to these coordinates.” A map appeared on another screen and the man glanced at it.
“What’s this?”
“The location of the warping fleet.”
The head officer looked at the map again, smirked, and finally uttered a howl of a laugh. “You are Kaiden’s EI, aren’t ya?” He chuckled. “Speaking of Kaiden, he can’t hear us, can he?”
“Not at present, no,” Chief admitted. “Do you want me to open a channel so you can—”
“Nah, there’s no use for that right now. I know how that goes in these times,” Wolfson said calmly. “But I do have a message. Can you record it for me and give it to him after this is done?”
“I promise I will,” the EI said in a solemn tone.
“Good, now listen up, blinky…”
Kaiden reappeared on the Academy grounds and watched the ship clear the mountains. “Do you think he’ll make it out in time?” Chiyo asked.
“Of course he will,” he said firmly. “He’s a little thick but hardly too reckless. He wouldn’t risk doing something that wouldn’t help.” He took a couple of steps forward and the colossus blocked the setting sun before a glow appeared. For a moment, he thought it was the sunlight but it began to cover the ship. “He’s warping?”
“He shouldn’t,” Genos protested. “Warping drains too much energy. It will lead to a premature explosion.”
The ace frowned. “He’ll make it out,” he said but his tone held less conviction. The ship began to shimmer, about to jump. “Chief is with him. They’ll think of something. Hell, Wolfson will probably jump out the windows on the bridge.”
“I’m afraid not, partner,” Chief said and reappeared in his HUD.
“Chief—wait, what’s going on?” Kaiden began to panic and sprinted to the edge of the island. “Wolfson!” he shouted as the colossus began to vanish and finally disappeared.
“Are we ready to depart?” Damyen asked the Omega Horde captain as he lit a cigar and took a few drags.
“As soon as we know the area is clear, we will jump,” the captain stated. “We’ll take care of this mess and gain a foothold in the region while we’re at it.”
“I’m sorry about this.” Damyen chuckled. “Our general is smart if a little too feisty. I believe we can—”
“A ship is warping in,” a technician notified them. “The colossus.”
“Nolan made it?” the chancellor mused as he looked out of the HQ window. “I always pegged him for the go down with the ship type. Running away is quite out of character for him.
The colossus appeared directly over the base. “I read a huge energy spike!” the technician yelled. “It’s going to blow.”
The cigar dropped out of Damyen’s mouth. “What?”
“God, I hate warping,” Wolfson muttered and glowered at the many consoles on the bridge that now sparked ominously. Panels fell from above as electrical fires began to erupt around him. He looked at his map to confirm that he was over the base, leaned back, and drew the flask out of the compartment of his leg to take a swig. “Here’s to your future,” he mocked the Omegas and Ark soldiers below with a toast. “You group of idiots.”
The colossus erupted, destroyed the base and the Arbiter fleet below, and blinded the area in a large sheet of white energy. When it finally settled, nothing remained.
Chapter Fifty-One
There were sounds behind him—the last blasts of the battle against the Arbiter droids still on the island, more like a hunt at this point, and cheers of victory. Soldiers called their command to check if it was really over. It was all dulled to Kaiden as the realization of what had just happened sank in.
He felt like he was about to fall, staggered, and reached his hands blindly to grasp the mostly broken railing. After a moment, he was able to steady himself as he drew a deep breath. He should have paid more attention to his surroundings. The main threat was gone but there could still have been enemies about. While he knew that on some level, he couldn’t focus.
It honestly shouldn’t have come as a surprise. He’d known since day one that this was always a possibility—hell, he had thought he had grown used to the idea of losing friends by the time he joined Nexus. But for the man to sacrifice himself, to be gone in a matter of moments…Kaiden had difficulty coming to terms with it all.
A hand settled on his shoulder and he turned to Chiyo, who stood beside him with her helmet off and her eyes filled with concern and understanding. She closed the distance between them and held him and Genos stepped behind her to take hold of the ace’s arm. The remainder of the group looked on, some of them in as much shock as he was.
“Could we have done anything to prevent it?” he whispered, more to himself than as a question. “Been faster? Focused on fixing Aurora before anything else? Dammit…” He leaned his head into Chiyo’s hair and gritted his teeth. “Dammit.”
“We’re sweeping up now, Commander,” General Hartman said briskly. “A good number of the droids deactivated before the colossus made the jump. They must have been connected to the ship itself and when the OS went out, so did their control.”
Sasha nodded and only partially paid attention to the general’s explanation in the comm.
“You led your team well. I see your years as a teacher have not dulled your ability to command. We always have a position for someone with your talent if you’d like to return.”
“I decline,” he replied and drew a deep breath. “We may have won a victory here but many were sacrificed to make it so, including a soldier better than I could hope to be.”
The general remained silent for a moment and took a deep breath of his own. “I understand. I suppose the sad fact is that I’ve grown…I wish to say accustomed, but it is probably more like callous to the loss of life working in the military. You have much to process, I’m sure.”
“When will we take the embassy?” the commander asked. “I cannot begin to rebuild the Academy while the Arbiter leader continues to breathe and plan. Will we have to wait for another half a year to even have a chance to take action?”
The general’s tone became gruff and no-nonsense. “I cannot promise immediate action, believe it or not, and the embassy may be much, much harder to take than the Academy was. But given the success here today—and remember, that is what this is—I can promise I will hoot and holler to make sure you are a part of the planning. You’ve proven yourself to me and any naysayers, commander. If we can come up with a plan to attack tomorrow, I doubt there will be many objections. But we have to be prepared.”
“I am aware of that,” Sasha stated. “We have much to discuss, then, but for now, I have to tend to my students.”
“Agreed. The recovered hostages we have onboard will be taken to the nearest hospital. We will also take the captive AO members to base for interrogation. I will fill you in at our next contact.”
“Thank you, General.” The commander signed out. His shuttle touched down on the Academy grounds and the side door opened so he and more than a dozen soldiers could file out, including Izzy, Silas, Marlo, Flynn, and Amber.
“Are you sure you’re all right to walk?” Marlo asked the marksman.
“I’ll be fine. When I crash, it’ll be for a while,” Flynn assured him and looked around. “For now, let’s find the others.”
Desmond and Zena looked at the Academy from their assault ship, which approached the side of Janis’ carrier. “Is that the end of it?” he asked.
“It looks like it,” she said with a nod as she leaned over the railing. “We should probably get out of here before they start making trouble.”
“I think the WCM would be more grateful than that,” he chided. “It’s not like they can enforce laws without a WC anyway.”
“I’m not sure that will hold up in court,” she retorted and focused on Janis’ ship. She contacted him through the commlink, changed to a private channel, and added Desmond. “So, what will the Halos do now?”
“Repair and make new droids from the looks of things,” Janis replied as he gazed at their much smaller vessel from the bridge windows. “And what are your plans?”
“Nothing concrete at the moment,” Zena replied with a glance at the Skyway Kings leader. “There are still a number of Omegas about. I don’t know if the loss of that big ship will change much, but they’ve taken too much of our gangs’ turf over the last few months. After a little rest and recuperation, I think we may take it to them instead of sitting around waiting for them to attack us.”
“The Halos don’t exactly have turf. We have a junk town—a rather nice one, actually,” Janis told them. “But they have raided our stores and vaults. Trying to recover some of our equipment was how we ended up in this fight, really. Am I correct in thinking you are trying to arrange a mutually beneficial arrangement?”
“She doesn’t really use fancy words like that all too much.” Desmond snickered and received a glare from Zena.
“I think we both have a similar problem and I think it would be mutually beneficial for us to solve it together since you’re here,” she said bluntly.
“Do you have a place for my gang to hide out while we’re in town?” Janis asked.
“There’s a Ramses warehouse available. It’s not like the big wigs are around to object,” Desmond told him.
“A warehouse?”
“I imagine a decent warehouse is better than a junk town, however nice it might be,” the Kings’ boss said jokingly.
The Halo leader chuckled. “You haven’t seen the basement,” he countered. “But we can at least discuss the possibility. Send me the coordinates and I’ll talk to my co-leaders on the way.”
“Done,” Zena confirmed and gave a mock salute as she and Desmond walked to the bridge. “They have three leaders in one gang, right?” she asked. “We’re both leaders of different gangs but we work together all the time.”
“We’ve been over this,” Desmond said with exaggerated patience. “What would we change the color to—purple? It doesn’t look good.”
“And baby-blue does?” she retorted.
“It’s cyan,” he countered and looked at the pilot. “Tell everyone we’re headed back and to find a shuttle or walk.”
“Are you gonna be all right, mate?” Kaiden raised his head to where Flynn and the others stood on his left.
“Yeah, eventually. It’s mostly shock.” He straightened and Chiyo and Genos stepped away as he faced his friends. “He would probably kick my ass if I got too down anyway.”
“That is accurate.” Genos nodded and Jaxon smiled slightly despite the seriousness of the moment.
The ace chuckled and his gaze drifted beyond the group to the island, which was mostly rubble. “It’ll be a hell of a job to repair everything now that it is our responsibility again.”
“Are you kidding? I bet we can fix it all in maybe a month,” Luke said and folded his arms as he studied the destruction. “It needed an update anyway. Maybe we can add a few new improvements.”
“It’s something to consider,” Jaxon said with a nod. “For now, we should celebrate and rest.”
“Besides, we still have one more objective,” Silas added and everyone looked at him. “We heard the chancellor talking to one of the generals.” He pointed skyward. “We can’t start rebuilding while a certain bastard still wants this place.”
“Right.” Kaiden balled his hands into fists as he looked up and envisioned the embassy in the stars above. “He won’t have it—or anything else now. And I’ll do my damnedest to be the one who ends it all for him.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
They couldn’t contact Damyen’s HQ, there was no connection to the colossus, and Dario did not respond. While they still attempted to piece everything together, things looked rather bleak. And yet, despite it all, Merrick seemed rather calm—almost disturbingly so, at least to the Omega commander, who stole glances at the man as he and the crewmen and technicians tried to gather intel.
The AO leader leaned back in his chair, seemingly lost in thought, his arms folded while one finger tapped his arm. The commander had seen guys like him before. This was the metaphorical calm before the storm when the leader saw a failure in their plans and tried their best to hide their displeasure before they erupted in anger and a flurry of vulgar language. But they always showed signs before their rants—veins throbbed or they muttered to themselves, perhaps even a darkening of the skin as anger took hold—but none of that was apparent with the man he now watched cautiously.
“How many?” Merrick asked and finally opened his eyes. “By your best estimate, how many would a total loss cost us at this point?”
The commander looked at one of the technicians, who simply shrugged. “My guess would be tens of thousands if the main base was destroyed,” the Omega leader said finally. “A considerable number of droids as well, the loss of the Ark students captured over the last few months, either by rescue or lost in the fight. This would compromise our hold on the planet.”
“But the forces up here?” the other man asked. “Your space forces still remain?”
“Obviously.” He nodded. “And we’ve been able to capture stations Icarus and Zeta. We should still be able to capture a third and possibly a fourth station before any retaliatory strike occurs.”
“Which would give us control of four of the six stations around Earth,” Merrick said, more to himself than anyone else. “They would need to capture those stations, both for a foothold and to rescue any inhabitants. That would buy us time as we consolidate our forces.” He turned his focus on a row of technicians. “Losing Aurora hasn’t compromised our hold on the embassy, has it?”
“Somewhat, sir,” one of the men admitted. “But the internal defenses are still under our control. Any security access we have lost should be under our control in only a few days. Those are the priority. Everything else should be back in our hands within the coming weeks.”
“I see.” He nodded, stood, and walked to the consoles. “We’ll need to be ready for their eventual assault. For now, any remaining destroyers should be recalled. Let the ground forces keep the assault ships and any smaller craft. We’ll focus on guerilla tactics from here on to hobble them. I’ll have all the equipment taken from the tower and brought here for further experimentation. I’m sure that today cost us many potential soldiers but we’ll still need all that we can to be prepared for the future.”
