Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 267
“Duck!” Kit shouted, and the other two leapt to opposite sides as a charged blast rocketed past and into the wall at the end of the hall to blow clean through it.
“I’d rather not, but at least there’s a chance I’ll live compared to getting hit by one of those,” he countered and readied his launcher as Chiyo tossed him the grenade. He slid it inside and held the trigger down to charge the weapon and explosive to increase the destructive power. Almost casually, he stepped over his mostly decorative barricade and fired. The grenade slammed into the center mechanical as its shield faltered again, blew the top half of its body off, and knocked the other droids aside.
“Heh, toss me more.” Fritz stretched a hand toward Chiyo. “I might have been a little too antsy.”
Red lights began to flash in the room followed by a chorus of loud hisses as several pods in the areas above began to open. More of the enhanced droids came online as the pod doors slid wide.
Fritz’s arm wavered slightly when he saw them activate. “Or maybe I was right, as usual.”
“Boss, we’re here.” Chiyo turned as three Azure Halo members raced in with additional Halo droids behind them. They stopped and glanced at the flashing lights and the enemy mechanicals. “What the hell are those?” one asked while another pointed through the window.
“To hell with the bots. What the hell is that?” the second asked.
“Focus on the bots for now,” Kit ordered and continued to fire as Chiyo tossed Fritz her container of grenades. She looked at the engine and noticed several large cords on the ceiling and floor that were attached to it.
“Kaitō, look for the system that keeps the engine powered,” she instructed as she vented her SMG. “We may need to use excessive force.”
“Understood. Shall I prepare the transport in the meantime?” the EI asked.
“I’ll get to work on that. You focus on the engine.” She shut her vent and fired at some of their adversaries above as they stepped out of their pods. One of those on the ground fired at the new arrivals to fell a Halo member and catch two of the droids in the explosion. Another two mechanicals made their way to the front, opened their chest plates as energy poured out, and created a large shield to cover everyone behind them. A third hurried behind them and held its hands out. Wires ejected and attached to their backs to allow its power to flow into them to strengthen the shields.
“Boss!” one of the remaining troops called as his teammate dragged the body of the deceased out of the line of fire. “The others are pinned down. It seems we have this place going now!”
“Dammit.” Kit grimaced and looked at Chiyo and Fritz. “Should we retreat?”
Before either could answer, the shield the droids had made shattered with a large boom and a few of the mechanicals above jumped down. Their blades emerged from their arms as they attacked the group.
“It looks like we wouldn’t get far,” Fritz shouted, aimed his launcher at one of the mechanicals, and fired. He was able to hit one but those around it simply increased speed or maneuvered out of the way of the blast. The Halo droids in front popped their blades and engaged but were only able to put up a brief fight before they were cut down in quick succession.
“Get into the hall. There’s more room to fight,” Chiyo said and hastily took pictures of the engine using her helmet’s visor. “I’m working on something. We’ll retreat.”
Fritz nodded but mumbled in a low tone about being scattered in pieces. The two women and a couple of droids maintained a sustained barrage at the Arbiter bots as they moved steadily out of the room. They had to dodge several blasts and Chiyo’s shields failed after one that detonated behind her and caught her in its radius. She kicked off the wall and slid out as she took control of the terminal and shut the doors, activated emergency procedures, and let the blast doors descend.
“Madame, I am in,” Kaitō informed her. “Shall I begin a Genos special?”
“Do it!” She opened a holoscreen, ran her hand across it, and made sure every dot that represented a friendly who was still breathing was marked. She set to work quickly and identified a location that was far enough away without pushing the system beyond anything they had already tried. This was experimental tech, after all. She had less of a problem with that than Fritz but she wasn’t an idiot.
Blasts rumbled behind the door, followed by sizzling as plasma blades began to cut through slowly but steadily.
“Everyone, get ready,” she shouted. Her teammates noticed a blue light that grew brighter through the holes in the door. Even the pounding seemed to decrease somewhat, an indication that the droids’ attention had turned elsewhere.
“Chiyo, what’s going on?” Kit asked, a growing concern evident in her voice.
The infiltrator closed the holoscreen. “We’re finishing the mission. Kaitō how long do we have?”
“About a minute, madame. It seems the engine was not left in a very safe and shielded condition and didn’t require that big a push,” the EI informed her.
“That’s fine. We’re out.” She pressed a switch on her gauntlet and exhaled a breath as she was pulled up and her vision went white.
Chiyo landed on her knees and reacted with a sputtering cough that was echoed by several behind her. She looked around at Kit, Fritz, and a handful of other Halo members. It looked like everyone still alive was there, at least.
“Where are we?” one of the Halo members asked as he removed his helmet and breathed deeply.
“I teleported us out but not too far. We’re a little more than a couple of miles from the factory,” she answered and stood.
“Will that be far enough?” Kit asked. “I assume you set that giant engine to blow?”
As if in answer to her question, a loud rumble drew the attention of the group to the horizon, where a massive plume of blue light surged skyward and dissipated. Even from their position, Chiyo felt like she would be picked up and hurled away by the force. A wave of energy ballooned from the initial blast and a few of the Halos began to retreat, prepared to make a run for it. Thankfully, it fragmented quickly and dispersed almost as soon as it had formed.
The team was quiet for a moment as they waited for another blast. Instead, pieces of metal rained from above and a particularly sharp one dug into the ground next to Fritz.
“That could have ended poorly,” he stated and grimaced at a bang when an Arbiter droid arm struck the helmet of one of his troops. The man took a couple of steps back and held his hands to the side of his helmet before he collapsed. His teammate who had taken his protective headgear off replaced it quickly.
Kit stopped beside Chiyo. “Nice work. I’ll have to remember that trick for the next run.”
The infiltrator watched the darkened sky return to its original shade as the explosion began to fade. “I’ve learned over the years that it is…quite an effective strategy.”
Chapter Eleven
“Soooo, it went well, then?” Professor Laurie asked as one of the technicians handed him a mug filled with dark coffee. “You pushed the teleporter to the max of its currently tested range, I see.”
“Given the circumstances, I should have tried to put us down farther away,” Chiyo replied and adjusted the feed on her end. “I think there is still some residual energy in the air. It’s causing issues with our connection.”
“It could be that.” He took a sip of his coffee and his face tightened a little at the bitterness. “Or it could be the fact that we’re processing so much information at one time that it’s on our end. Communication has been an issue these last few days.”
“Are they working you that hard, Professor?” she asked with a trace of laughter in her voice.
He rubbed a hand over his face. “You have no idea. I feel like I may drop before I have a chance to celebrate with the rest of you when this is all over.” He refocused and took another sip. “We received a fair amount of new information via our dear friend Kaiden from one of the AO’s former members. We’re piecing it together and parsing it all. Hopefully, there is some information on weaknesses and perhaps still functioning codes if we’re lucky. Fortunately, Team Three has finished its mission and obtained the codes for the stations.”
“So we’ll attack soon?” Chiyo asked, her mirth gone and replaced by a seriousness that was tense, even for her.
“I couldn’t inform you of that, but once they know we have the codes to access the stations, I’m sure they will change them. Time is of the essence right now,” Laurie stated and fixed her with a firm look. “So I suggest you get back as soon as possible if you would like to be a part of it. Ask your Halo friends if they would like to join us. I’m sure we could use all the hands we can get.”
“We’ll have to see. This might be above what they are willing to do but I’ll certainly ask.” She looked down and moved around the screen on her tablet. “I have something I wanted to pass on to you. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any info on it and had to destroy it on our way out, but we found this inside the factory.” She sent the professor the pictures of the engine. He placed his mug down and studied it. “From the readouts I did take on it, this could have powered another colossus.”
He frowned at the mention of the ship. “Send those readouts to me as well if you still have them. I agree with you simply by looking at it, but there is something different about this engine. It’s more experimental and oddly designed for something that would merely be a big battery.”
Chiyo nodded and tapped her screen. “Done. They’re on their way and I’ll be off now, Professor. See you soon.”
“Come back safe, Chiyo,” he responded and signed out. He examined the pictures again and scanned her readouts as well. If this was an engine design, he wondered, was it merely a prototype? Why would they risk building it on Earth? They had a hold on the planet, certainly, but it wasn’t global by any means. Even at the height of their power a few months before, this would have been risky. He began to worry that this wasn’t the only one Merrick had worked on. This was the beginning of mass production.
When the infiltrator had destroyed it and used it as a bomb, it was very likely that she might have unintentionally used it in the intended manner.
“Ah, it is good to be back!” Luke shouted, stretched his arms, and removed his helmet. He stepped aside hastily as medics arrived to recover the wounded.
“Get rest while you can, mate,” Flynn replied as he walked past to the armory. “I’m sure we’ll be sent out again in twenty-four hours or less.”
“We wouldn’t want to get too bored.” Cameron chuckled and undid the straps around his gauntlets as the rest of the group made their way out of the dropships.
“Welcome back, Team Three,” Sasha said quietly and spooked the team.
“H-hey, Chancellor!” Amber responded before she whispered to Izzy, “Man, I wish he would stop that.”
“I don’t think he means to do it. I think it is simply normal for him at this point.” She shrugged and they waited for the man to speak.
“Well done on the mission—very effective and with no fatalities.” He paused when a couple of soldiers were carried off on stretchers to the medical building. “Some injuries, but it could have been much worse.”
“Eh, it’s become kinda easy now.” Luke chuckled. “The Omegas are big and loud but it’s like only some of them have any real training.”
“You’re gonna knock someone for being big and loud?” Indre asked.
The titan linked his hands behind his head. “At least I had training.”
“So when is our next mission?” Cameron asked. Part of his chest armor was undone but he hesitated on the rest. “Am I getting undressed for no reason?”
“You deserve a break. There are other tasks but the most important ones are already being undertaken by other teams.”
“Eh, I won’t complain,” the bounty hunter said and resumed the process of undoing his armor. “But don’t feel you need to keep us locked up. This is the closest I have to therapy right now.”
Alarms began to blare around the station. People stopped to retrieve tablets or open holoscreens to see what was happening.
“Sasha, we have incoming!” Hartman shouted into the chancellor’s earpiece.
He activated the screen in his oculars. “What’s going on General?”
“A fleet of Omega ships jumped into our space. They are engaging our blockade on the coast.”
“That seems far enough away that you wouldn’t need to activate a red alert,” he commented.
“This is a large attack so it seems they are looking to strike at us in force now,” the man explained. “I’m calling for any nearby units to help push them back and wondered if any of the teams you’re looking after are in the area.”
One sprang to mind. “I’ll contact them.”
“Team One?” Sasha’s face appeared in the ace’s HUD. “There is a large enemy fleet on the coast—”
“Yeah, the Omegas.” Kaiden nodded. “We’re already on the way. All of us felt the jumps and we weren’t even close to their entry point.”
“We’re rallying all nearby vessels to assist but we cannot leave the base too unprotected in case it is only a diversion.”
“It would be a hell of a diversion,” Silas stated. “It looks like fifteen ships in all, from assault to corsair to destroyers. And that’s not counting all the personal fighters.”
“I am amazed that the Horde is able to muster such forces even after so long,” Genos said thoughtfully.
“They have controlled their sector for decades,” Jaxon replied. “I’m sure they’ve been building, stealing, and repurposing vessels the entire time. They are the largest mercenary force in the known galaxy.”
“Not to mention all the terrorist groups that folded into them once this all kicked off,” Haldt added. “There is a reason they’ve been so brazen, even after almost a year of fighting.”
“We’re heading there now, Sasha,” Kaiden confirmed, signed off, and looked at the team. “Let’s destroy this invasion attempt. The sooner we do it, the sooner we can take this fight to them.”
Chapter Twelve
“WCV Dionysus, we are a team of Resistance members currently designated Team One and coming in to join the fight,” Haldt stated as he brought their dropship in and several others behind them broke off to land on smaller vessels.
“We’re glad to have you join us,” a technician responded. “As you can see, it’s kind of a clusterfuck out there at the moment.”
Kaiden studied the battle through the cockpit window. The approaching Omega ships fired blasts of red energy and rockets streaked toward their targets. Multiple dogfights were in progress and numerous smaller ships fought around the larger ones. At least a dozen of these were almost entirely obliterated in the frenzied chaos.
“No kidding,” he muttered and turned to the pilot. “Drop me off before you head down.”
“Do what?” the man asked with a frown. “Where?”
“Onto one of the enemy ships,” he said curtly as he pushed from the co-pilot’s seat and began to walk to the bay. “One of the smaller ones, though. Aim for a corsair.”
“Are you gonna take it yourself?” Haldt asked, his expression somewhere between amusement and disapproval.
“Maybe.” The ace opened his weapons case, slid Debonair into its holster, and primed Sire. He looked at his team. “Does anyone care to join me?”
Silas nodded and stood quickly. “I might as well. Otherwise, I would probably be ferried onto another dropship or have to wait for them to come to me.”
“I will as well,” Jaxon offered and looked at Genos. “Will you, kin?”
“Given the current battle,” the engineer began as he studied a screen with a feed outside, “I will probably be of more use as a pilot if they have ships available.”
“Oh, they will,” Haldt told him. “I served on a couple of destroyers and they are stocked to the gills.”
“Then we will meet later.” Jaxon stood and Kaiden tossed him his machine gun. The Tsuna activated it as they stood at the side door of the ship.
“Are we close yet?” the ace asked, his weapon at the ready as he crouched.
“I’m coming up to the side of one—they are opening the upper hatch!” The top half of the side door slid back and the three Resistance soldiers fired into it as the dropship circled above the corsair. They directed their attack through the aperture on the side of the smaller vessel as Haldt drew closer. A few shots were fired in retaliation, but a cannon blast from Genos ended the defense rather quickly.
“Heading out!” Kaiden shouted. The bottom half of the door slid away, and the three teammates leapt from the ship and landed in the top hall of the corsair as Genos stepped back. The door of their dropship closed and the ship backed away toward the military vessels.
“Where we headed?” Silas asked and checked their flank.
“Command deck. We’re taking over,” the ace responded and motioned for them to follow as he broke into a jog.
“And after that?” the Tsuna inquired.
“I haven’t thought that far,” he told them honestly. “I guess we can use it to attack other Omegas? I don’t have mid-level pilot talents, though.”
“Nor do I,” Jaxon admitted and glanced at Silas, who shook his head. “Perhaps Chief can be of use?”
“Assuming they don’t have some kind of junk OS, I can probably get something going,” the EI responded and appeared in Kaiden’s HUD. “It was a nice-looking ship—until you damaged it, at least—and probably not repurposed so it should be all right.”
“Then I guess we’ll—shit! Incoming.” Kaiden fell to one knee and charged a blast as an Omega heavy rounded the corner. Silas spun and discharged his shotgun as a couple of mercs tried to flank them. Jaxon assisted and discharged his machine gun to keep the enemy at bay, although their adversary’s shields nullified most of the damage. Kaiden fired in the same moment that the man raised his arms and launched a torrent of flames. The ace’s charged shot blazed through the fire and connected with the heavy but only forced him to take a few steps back. Kaiden narrowed his eyes when he noticed the tank on his back and his now weakened shields.
