Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 281
“Give us a hand now and mock us later,” Cameron retorted and he fired at an Ark marksman who aimed at the new arrivals.
“I’ll get the doors,” the infiltrator stated and vaulted over the railing. “You clean up the rest. They still have forces waiting in the lab, and we need to be quick.”
“Mopping up,” Luke hollered, thunked his hammer into the floor, and hurled soldiers and drones away. The other soldiers used the opportunity to decimate their ranks and force the survivors back. Chiyo caught a hanging banner and used it to slide down before she jumped off onto the wall and bounced to the floor. She ran to the doors, cast Kaitō into the terminal as she drew her SMG, and quickly demolished two Arbiter droids on her approach.
“Madame, I’ve almost opened the door,” the EI informed her.
“Did you have any interference?” she asked, still alert and watchful. By this point, however, most of the hostiles were at the end of the hall, being pushed out or eliminated by the Resistance forces.
“No, and it’s rather curious. In fact, I would say they have no interest in stopping me. I think they are too focused on fixing whatever remains of your disruptions and getting the bomb activated.”
Chiyo frowned and vented her weapon, while Indre descended by using one of her drones to allow her to glide down. Flynn, Cameron, Marlo, and the remaining soldiers who weren’t driving the enemies out of the hall joined her. “The door is almost open. Get ready. We don’t have much time.”
“That’s been well-established,” Cameron stated and closed the vent on his rifle.
“Do you believe we can still shut it down?” Genos asked.
“That would be the best outcome,” the infiltrator confirmed and shrugged. “But even if we can’t, we will not fail here.”
Kaiden cursed in a low tone, aimed hastily, and charged a shot. The barrels of the red droid—aimed directly at him—began to spin ominously again.
“Hold on for a sec.” Chief vanished without explanation.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded and frowned as light began to glow from the barrels while they charged. He aimed his rifle away and shifted so he could roll to the side and push to his feet. The droid did not follow, thankfully, and the cannon began to slow.
“Did it break?” Silas asked warily as he approached with his shotgun still at the ready.
The enemy’s red eye changed to white again and it straightened, aimed its cannon up, and nodded to the team. Kaiden tilted his head thoughtfully as he examined it. “Chief? Are you in there?”
“You got it, buddy,” the EI chirped. “Taking over one of the scrawny bastards almost doesn’t seem worth the effort. This one—an Arbiter Prime model from what I see—is worth it.”
“You could have let me know a little sooner,” he muttered and strode past the droid.
The mechanical shrugged as it followed him. “I was working on it and am not good at multi-tasking.”
“Bullshit,” the ace retorted. “Whatever. Let’s get down the hall and take the station.”
“We’ll still need to clear it,” Jaxon reminded him. “The mission will not be a success until we have complete control of it.”
“Having control of the defenses and security bots will help with that,” Izzy replied.
Kaiden held a hand up. “We’re here.” He pointed to the droid, then down the hall. “Chief, get in there.”
“You want me to lead the charge?” he questioned. “I have the feeling you think I’m expendable.”
He shook his head. “Of course I don’t,” he said and tapped the mechanical’s chest. “But that body you are in is, now show us what it can do.”
Although he couldn’t see Chief’s avatar, he was fairly sure he was rolling his eye. “This seems like petty revenge, but whatever.” The droid’s shields activated as the cannon barrels began to spin. “I hope you meat bags can keep up.”
The droid lurched into a run on long legs and barreled into the central room. The team followed with a few paces between them and the mechanical, and as soon as the EI had enemies in his sights, he began to fire. The attack surprised the Omegas, whose focus was still on the other hall. Kaiden and Jaxon were the first of the team inside and fired at soldiers above. Silas and Izzy demolished two droids that dropped from higher up and watched the hall behind them.
“They made it,” the military officer shouted. “The enemy is breaking—push forward!”
“Let me,” Mack offered, formed the shield wall into a ball, and cast it ahead. It plowed through a few soldiers before it struck the cylinder in the middle of the area, erupted, and hurled the enemy soldiers and droids across the room.
“Kaiden!” Jaxon called and dodged the large blade of an Omega heavy while he planted a thermal grenade on the man’s back. He vaulted over a set of consoles as the explosive detonated. “Get inside the central station. Upload the codes.”
“Chief has them,” the ace replied and yanked his blade from a merc’s neck. “Chief, leave the body.”
The EI annihilated three Arbiter droids. “Are you sure? I still have—” A loud crash cut his words short as another Prime droid dropped in. “Aw, hell.”
“Quick—take it out!” Kaiden ordered and charged a shot before a droid dropped behind him and a blade unsheathed from its arm. He side-stepped the attack and fired into its chest while Chief exchanged fire with the first mechanical. Rapid energy blasts were exchanged but the ace ducked hastily, and the droids quickly destroyed each other’s shields before each annihilated the other.
“Well, shit. Never mind.” Chief groaned as he reappeared in the HUD. “Let’s get in there.”
Kaiden knelt and vented his gun for a moment before he shut it and charged another shot as he approached the central chamber. He found the entrance and fired at the door to demolish it in a flash of green energy. In response, a small orb of blue energy sailed out, caught him in the chest, and forced him back.
“Shields are down to thirty percent,” Chief warned. “It looks like they saw that coming.”
“I noticed.” The ace growled his annoyance as he retrieved a thermal. “Let’s see them respond to this.” He lobbed it into the room but one of the droids snatched it from the air and prepared to throw it back. “Nope.” He sighted his rifle and fired at the explosive, detonated it, and obliterated the enemy.
“Lucky that wasn’t near anything important,” Chief pointed out. “Let’s try to not destroy what we came here for.”
Kaiden was silent for a moment as he had to admit Chief was right. “Noted.” He sighed, stood hastily, and ran inside. “I’ll try to keep the destruction a little more moderate.”
This time, he did see Chief roll his eye.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Luke removed his hammer from the chest of the assault droid on the floor and rested it on his shoulder. “Is that the last of them?”
“It seems to be,” a raider stated and looked around. “Do you think we should push deeper into the complex or head out?”
“That bomb is our priority right now,” he replied.
“He’s right,” a military officer agreed. “We need to get back there and assist the team. Who knows what else is coming through to try to stop us?”
Alarms blared and the entire group turned to the red lights that flashed at the end of the hall. A door opened and a large black mech pushed through before the entrance had even opened fully. Large cannons were affixed to both arms and two turrets were mounted on its shoulders.
The titan hefted his hammer in both hands as the group began to back away. “Is it too late to place a bet on a Goliath droid?” he quipped.
“Yeah, betting on that is off,” the officer grunted and checked his team quickly. “But I have a new bet if you are interested.”
The mechanical aimed its cannons at them. “Yeah, what’s that?” Luke asked.
“How long do you think it’ll take us to destroy this?” the other man replied.
Luke smiled and twisted his hammer. “Whatever you are thinking, I’ll take the under.” He pressed the trigger on his hammer and surged toward the enemy with two other heavies and two raiders alongside. Undeterred by their aggressive approach, the Goliath fired on them.
“The doors are open, madame,” Kaitō stated as the large doors began to move with a hiss of escaping air. “I suggest you defend you—”
Before he could finish his warning, they faced a fusillade of laser blasts. A couple of heavies popped external shields quickly while the others ducked or leapt out of the way and spun hastily to return fire.
“Indre, Chiyo!” Genos called. “Focus on the bomb. We will make sure you are not interrupted.”
“Much appreciated,” Chiyo acknowledged and ran in with Indre on her heels as she dispatched her drones to assist. The lab was massive and extremely high-tech, but it seemed cleanliness had not been a main concern, at least recently. Various machines and components were strewn everywhere. Droids and pieces of armor seemingly took up an entire corner of the facility, but the large box in the middle that glowed white with a large ring hovering overhead drew their immediate attention.
The infiltrator aimed at an Ark soldier in their path, but two of Indre’s drones swooped to launch spikes and small kinetic rounds through his helmet. He fell and both technicians vaulted over him to a large terminal and console set up outside the box. Several technicians in gray coats turned to them as they approached.
“We are unarmed,” one stated breathlessly and held his hands up.
“Technically, no, you aren’t,” Indre countered and gestured at the box. “We’re here to shut that down.”
“It’s too late,” another technician shouted, although her tone was more concerned than malicious. “We were ordered to start it early because of your attack. The levels fluctuate constantly, though, and we can’t keep them in check.”
“Are you saying it’ll explode here?” Chiyo demanded and prodded the man with her gun.
“It does not have to,” he stated. “We intended to send it somewhere else.”
“Do you care to explain where?” she pressed. He turned away and remained silent. “I assume somewhere that would have caused millions if not billions of deaths. But now that I give it a little thought…” Chiyo put her SMG away, shoved the technician aside, and took the controls. “Indre, keep them secured.”
“Not a problem,” the agent responded and trained her gun on them as she summoned a couple of her drones to guard them. “What’s the matter, Chi? You sound tense.”
“Which is not abnormal given the situation,” her teammate responded and continued to work while she sent Kaitō into another part of the system.
“You’ve done very well keeping your cool until now, at least,” the agent added. “Something must really be wrong, huh?”
Chiyo nodded. “It’s only now occurred to me that there is no place on the planet to which we can send this that won’t end in a massive loss of life,” she explained. “Even if I do find a location in the middle of the ocean that would be sufficient to make sure no one dies from the blast, the bomb seems to eradicate anything within the explosion radius, along with creating great force. That would cause havoc with the ecosystem and potentially lead to natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, which would lead to devastation either way.”
“Then send it into space,” Indre reasoned and motioned with her pistol to a technician who seemed to be trying to back away.
“That’s what I realized, but there are space stations and the army to consider,” she replied. “I need to send it deep into space and without another gate open, I can’t make it travel that far.”
Her teammate pressed her gun against the chest of the lead tech. “Activate more gates,” she ordered.
“We couldn’t help you there even if we wanted to,” he snapped. “The gates are controlled by the stations and embassy.”
“Shit,” she muttered and turned to Chiyo. “Is that true? Is there no other way?”
“It is, but that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless.” The infiltrator opened her contacts. “Although it means we have to hope he’s made better progress than we have.”
“Son of a bitch, go away!” Kaiden yelled and fired Debonair through a droid’s head and shoved it off him. “Chief, can’t you do something about all these bots?”
“Do you wanna whine or do you want me to get this station under our control?” Chief retorted. “It’s not like I have it easy either. Even with the codes, they’ve already started switching certain systems to a different set. Not many but enough to be a pain, and I think they have hackers trying to stop me.”
“Ugh, fine!” Kaiden whacked his blade into the chest of another droid. They seemed as concerned as he was to not destroy the room and attacked with smaller arms and melee weapons. “I’ll keep busy.”
“Quit squawking and I can— Hey, we have a message from Chiyo.”
“Really?” Kaiden kicked the droid off his blade and it smacked into another behind it to impale itself on its comrade’s weapon. Kaiden fired a shot through the second droid’s head before he reacted to the unmistakable sound of an electric charge and ducked as electricity arced overhead. He straightened and threw his blade through the attacking mechanical’s skull and finally eliminated it with two shots to the chest. “What’s up? How is she doing?”
“Not the best, it seems,” Chief revealed. “They have reached the bomb, but the enemy techs have already activated it. She has a way to teleport it, but she needs a gate opened to send it far enough away for it to be of no harm.”
“All the gates are down,” he said and scanned the area. No more droids were visible, so he finally gave himself a moment to breathe. “What can we do?”
“The fact that we’re on this station means we can fix the problem,” the EI confirmed. “Stations Icarus and Xuanzang also control several gates. That’s part of the reason we have to take them back.”
“Can you activate them in time?” he asked, his gaze focused on the entrance to the room.
“Yeah, but I need a boost. I gotta activate the battle suite.”
“How’s that gonna help you?” the ace asked and exchanged Debonair for Sire. “It’s to increase my fighting ability.”
“We have a special relationship,” Chief explained. “We’re not like other soldiers and EIs. I can get a boost to all my systems.”
Kaiden looked at the options the EI scanned quickly. “Really? Why haven’t you brought this up before?”
“Because we’ve never needed it. I do easy hacking stuff and never had to dip my nonexistent toes into the job of a techie,” he replied. “And there is a catch—to you. In the same way the suite basically intertwines us but to your favor, this is the opposite. I’ll be able to work beyond peak efficiency, but that’s gonna be unloaded onto you.”
Kaiden raised an eyebrow. “Meaning what exactly?”
“The best-case scenario is you’ll probably get a bit loopy. At worst…remember how you felt when Gin shut the Animus down and kept you in it?”
“I do, yeah. My brain could have been fried if I recall correctly,” the ace muttered with a grimace. “Whatever. Just do it.”
“Make sure the others know and I’ll try to make this quick,” Chief told him somberly.
He activated his comms. “Whatever you guys are doing out there, keep it up, but I need you to make sure no one gets inside. I will be out for a moment.”
“Out? Where are you going?” Silas asked.
“I’m gonna get loopy according to Chief,” he responded. “Or hopefully, that’s the worst that can come from it.” He silenced the comms and nodded. “Do it, Chief.”
“Initializing suite.” Kaiden’s vision grew brighter and he became lightheaded almost immediately. The EI’s computing ability improved dramatically and he immediately shut out the other hackers and technicians and got to work. “All right, you pathetic excuses for techies. See if you can stop me now.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Is everything well?” the captain of the Fenrir asked.
“As well as it can be given that our job is to be a shield,” one of the crewmen responded.
“Shield and sword,” he corrected. “I have no desire to fall on this day either, so if you could focus on the sword part, I would be most appreciative.”
“I’m on it, sir,” the man acknowledged with a small chuckle.
The captain approached Julius, who watched over four other crewmen, all asleep on the floor. “Will they be all right?”
“Hmm?” Julius looked up from his medical case. “Ah, them? Yes, they will be. There are some moderate to severe wounds but nothing critical. The elixir I gave them puts them into a temporary sleep to aid in accelerated recovery.” Julius picked up the arm of one of the crewmen to show the other man a scar about four inches long. “This used to be wider and much deeper, and this is the progress after a little more than a half-hour.”
“Remarkable!” the officer responded with genuine approval. “Is it your own product?”
“I can’t take all the credit,” the younger man said as he stood. “I came up with it during my advanced year in a group of four. I’m still ironing out the kinks so I had to give them a much smaller dose since I couldn’t dilute it properly. It is still not good for soldiers on the battlefield as they are physically weakened and have some mental disconnect to their EI for a short time. These crewmen should be back at their posts within an hour, though.”
“I’m glad to have your help,” the captain said graciously. “I’ve spoken to the medics in the bay. They have treated who they could and are taking care of others. Those who weren’t KIA are also on the path to recovery. Most are rather stubborn and are determined to return to combat.”
“Well, that’s what they came for,” Julius reminded him. “I think myself and my compatriots were worried about not getting to the fight at all, so I’m glad it didn’t come to that.”
