Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 288
As Sasha entered and scanned the room for Merrick, Kaiden helped Raza to sit. He checked his wounds and his gaze lingered on the severed hand. “How are you holding up, War Chief?”
The Sauren growled, folded his legs in preparation to stand, and hissed from the pain of the injury on his leg. “It will take more than this for me to give in.”
He helped to steady the warrior. “Yeah, I guess it’s death or nothing.” He placed Raza against the back of the circular walkway and vented Debonair as he turned to Sasha. “Thanks for the save.”
“You could have prevented this if you had called in before engaging,” the commander chided and his gaze scanned the area.
“I didn’t realize we would find him here. We came because the core was fluctuating,” he explained and closed Debonair’s vent. That brought his focus to what had led them there to begin with. He looked at the core, from which errant arcs continued to jettison. Most were directed toward the ceiling. “We have to get it back under control. Otherwise, it’ll blow the embassy.”
“And destroy much of the force nearby,” Sasha added. “Can Chief do anything about it?”
“I’m locked out and it’ll take time to get the system open,” the EI explained hurriedly. “The problem is that he’s already begun to take down the balancing grid. I might be able to get the shields up but putting the grid back to normal is delicate work.”
“Then shouldn’t you get started?” The ace checked on Raza, pleased to see that the wound on his leg had already begun to heal.
“I can if you wanna risk it,” Chief replied. “We don’t know if he’s left traps in the system. If something happens to me, it will also affect you.”
Kaiden took a few steps forward when he realized Sasha had moved a fair distance ahead of him. “Dammit…I would risk it if we at least had an idea of where—”
Raza lunged and almost toppled forward. “Commander! He’s behind you!”
Kaiden aimed hastily at where he thought their enemy might be. Sasha turned and leapt back, and a hole appeared when something pierced the chest of his armor. The ace fired three shots, but they were stopped in midair when Merrick appeared again and kicked the other man away. The ace retrieved a shock grenade as his adversary formed the three blasts he’d fired into a single orb. He readied himself to dodge but the man looked away and toward the core. Conscious only of the need to stop him, he pressed the trigger on the shock and lobbed it as Merrick tossed the orb at the pillar he had already deactivated. The sphere stuck to it and seconds later, a large red blast preceded an avalanche of pieces of the pillar. A loud crashing issued from below the floor.
“What the hell did he do?” the ace demanded and gaped as the shock grenade detonated next to the AO leader. The electricity coiled around him before it was all absorbed by a generator on his back. “Great. I juiced him up, didn’t I?”
“The bastard compromised one of the grid stations!” Chief yelled. “To hell with it. Get me in there. I need to see if I can save it.”
“Then go, Chief!” Kaiden ordered and cast him into the core’s terminal as Raza joined him. Merrick held both arms up and his blade retracted as two pistols ejected into his hands from the underside of his gauntlets. The Sauren drew his Taiko and he and his partner aimed at their aggressor. The man aimed one of his guns in their direction and the other toward Sasha, who had recovered and shortened the barrel of his rifle as he approached his target from behind.
The four stood motionless and waited to see who would make the first shot, while the core continued to flare behind them.
“Down the hall, Genos!” Chiyo instructed as they sprinted toward the open doors at the end, where they could see a brightly glowing orb and heard explosive and static sounds.
“That core is not in a good state,” the Tsuna muttered. “It appears our concerns were accurate.”
“Can we do anything about it?” she asked and darted him a concerned glance.
“It all depends on how far gone it is,” he replied. “Between us, we can possibly get the shields back on. If the grid has been tampered with, however, that will require much more work. At best, we may have to simply shut it off. There should be a temporary power backup that will allow us to at least evacuate the station.”
“I don’t see Kaiden,” she told him and checked the map. “It says he’s still in there.”
“And alive, so that is fortuitous,” he added.
“Commander Sasha is in there as well, but if neither of them is working on controlling the core, they must be in battle…perhaps fighting Merrick,” Chiyo reasoned and her voice shook.
“Then we may have other concerns before we can work on the core,” the Tsuna pointed out as they approached the doorway. The core flashed and several streaks of energy launched free. One seared into the ceiling of the hall. The two teammates pushed on and entered. Her gaze was immediately drawn down the room to where Raza and Kaiden stood motionless and aimed at something.
“Kaiden!” she shouted. The ace reacted to hearing his name and turned slightly toward her. A loud bang accompanied a shot from Raza and a large orb of yellow energy rocketed forward as Kaiden dove to the side. Genos hauled her down as a kinetic round flew overhead, struck the wall behind them, and blew pieces of metal apart.
“Help Chief!” Kaiden shouted at them and pointed at the core and the station in front of it as he pushed himself up and fired at someone in armor. She stood and stared at the figure and knew, when a pair of piercing silver eyes settled on her, it was Merrick.
“Chiyo, we must go!” the engineer insisted and all but dragged her to the stairs.
The ace fired two shots from Debonair, but his adversary ducked under them. The AO leader prepared to return fire, but blasts came from behind and one struck his shoulder. He fired at both Kaiden and Sasha. The younger man caught a shot in the leg and even with his shields, the armor around his femur cracked. Sasha took two hits, one in his left shoulder while the other skimmed the side of his helmet. He fell back, retrieved a thermal, and threw it toward Merrick.
His teeth gritted, the ace rolled forward, took a thermal out as well, and hurled it. The AO leader had begun to holster his guns so he could use his shields to block the blast. As the explosives hurtled closer, Kaiden took aim at his and fired a shot. It struck the grenade and caused it to blow prematurely. The blast triggered Sasha’s and the explosion consumed the man. Their adversary leapt out of the blast, however, with two disks in his hand. He flung one at each of them.
Raza stalked forward and charged another powerful shot in his Taika. The two soldiers were able to shoot the projectiles, which unleashed a wave of force on impact and hurled them both away. The War Chief bellowed a challenge as he fired, and Merrick held his hands up and created a shield as the large yellow orb careened toward him. Even with the shields, the power of the blast slid him back. He made impact with the wall as he tried to contain the ball of energy and struggled to hold it aloft and return it. The Sauren moved his hand to his belt, took his force hammer out, and activated the switch before he hurled it at Merrick.
Even from his somewhat distant position, Kaiden could see a twinge of shock in the AO leader’s eyes. The hammer connected as he tried to throw the orb. It fell out of his hands, landed a few yards away, and exploded. Raza held his arms up to shield himself as the man was consumed by the blast.
“I’m surprised this system is still holding together,” Chiyo muttered and studied the options presented to her.
“You’re telling me!” Chief yelled, his avatar distorted on the screen. “I’m glad you guys came along as I’m not sure if even I could hold all this together myself.”
Genos returned quickly after having examined the grid. “The node is damaged internally. I’m not sure if it would be stable enough to contain the core even if we can set it in place again.”
“What options does that leave us?” she asked and looked from him to Chief.
“There is one more failsafe,” the EI mentioned. “It’s below deck, a station that activates a generator that will siphon the excess energy being poured out of the core.”
“That sounds like the most preferable option.” The Tsuna nodded at her.
“We still need to get the shield going,” the EI reminded them. “The generators are in the same area, and with how much power this thing is pouring out, anyone who goes down there… Well, they may be able to tough it out and activate it, but they would be fried before they could get out.”
“The shield will need to charge even if we turn it on,” she pointed out.
“Then we might have a use for the node after all,” Genos said quickly and turned to look at it. “There is still power inside it. I can arrange for it to transfer into the shielding generator when you get it working again.”
“Boosting the charge rate…it’s a good idea,” Chief agreed. “Get on it.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Raza put his Taiko away and the remains of the energy from Merrick’s fumbling attempt to use the collected energy began to disperse. He grasped the hilt of his blade again, but before he could draw his weapon, two shots from within the yellow cloud caught him in his chest and erupted in ballistic explosions. As he was thrown back, Kaiden cursed and fired into the cloud at almost the same time as Sasha.
Light flared, the sign of impact against shields that were close to giving way. He took a few steps forward before a warning in his HUD let him know that energy was building around the man. When he confirmed that the commander had withdrawn, he ran to Raza and flung himself down as a large wave of energy was dispersed to clear the air and reveal Merrick. Pieces of his armor—his left shoulder pad, right gauntlet, and the upper half of his chest plate—were broken. Blood dripped down his forehead and more was evident on his armor, most likely from wounds beneath it.
The AO leader aimed both pistols at Kaiden, who leveled his single weapon, ready to fire. “Prepare the jets,” he ordered and heard them start as he pushed to his feet. “Raza, can you still move?”
The Sauren uttered a growl and shifted slightly. “I guess that’s an affirmative,” the ace continued. “I’ll give you a shot in a sec, so be ready.” He tilted his head and studied the Arbiter leader. “So, was this how you expected the new age of humanity to be?” he challenged.
The man didn’t respond at first and when he noticed Sasha taking aim, he moved to aim one of his guns at the commander in a mirror of how the fight had begun.
“You know, you said back when this all started, you expected something to attack us,” Kaiden recalled and moved forward a step. “What is it? Some new alien force? A big-ass meteor? Demons summoned by an intergalactic death cult? I prefer the last one honestly. That’s at least new.”
“Would you believe me? You’ve proven you would rather fight against salvation than fight for it,” Merrick responded and focused on him again. The ace felt this was something he never got enough credit for—his quick wit, or big mouth as some of his friends might say.
“And you never gave us the choice,” he snapped and took another step forward, his jets almost ready. “You attacked the planet and allied yourself with terrorists and the number one outlaw merc company in the galaxy. Some of your lackeys went on about how you were such a god and a strategic genius, but your PR is shit.”
He expected his adversary to fly into a rage or perhaps scoff but either way, to take the bait. Instead, the man lowered his head slightly, although he did grit his teeth but more out of the frustration of trying to hold something back. “I have spent decades of my life in the service of our people. I was to be the representation of what the future of the human species would be but the council’s gift to me only brought me madness.”
“No shit.” Kaiden snorted. “So you faked your death and decided to take care of things for yourself. Is that about right?”
“Do you believe there was an alternative? I tried them all!” Merrick growled and looked at him again. “I was forced into this—not by personal pleasure but by necessity. I regret the sacrifices but they had to be made.”
“You would save the Earth even if you had to break a few eggs to do it, right? Why does that always mean genocide to psychos like you?” He scoffed. “You know, I think I worked out what this big bad thing that will wipe humanity out is.”
“Enough!” the man yelled and fired a shot at his two opponents. The ace activated his jets and elevated sharply. Sasha dove back and fired two shots from his rifle. Both struck their adversary’s chest and shattered the remains of his armor and Kaiden shut his jets off as he descended. The AO leader swung toward him to fire, but Sasha’s shots toppled him and made him miss. The ace found his mark and delivered a strike directly into the tyrant’s head.
Merrick cried out in pain, the first Kaiden had heard, before he dropped one of his pistols and clutched his face. He brandished the other at him before a tell-tale roar gave scant warning and Raza leapt on top of the man. While he tried to kick his attacker off, he was only able to push him over. The Sauren War Chief was finally able to sink his blade into the Arbiter leader.
The ace landed and spun to level Debonair at Merrick, who now coughed as traces of blood trickled from his mouth and down his chest. He walked closer and Sasha jogged to help Raza to his feet. Kaiden kicked Merrick’s pistols away and fixed him with a hard look. His face was now blackened, scarred, and burnt, and Raza’s massive blade was buried in his chest and down into his stomach. He knelt beside him and removed his helmet to stare into the Arbiter leader’s eyes. “You know, seeing you like this now…” he began and placed Debonair against his temple. “In a weird way, I almost wish this wasn’t how it ended. It makes everything feel so damn pointless.”
The man caught his arm and he began to press the trigger of his pistol as Merrick stared directly into his eyes. “So what did you see?” he asked. “You said you had an idea of what was coming. Does that mean you are prepared? Do you think you could do any better in my position?”
“I already am,” he stated and broke the man’s hold with his free hand. “You said this thing comes for humanity and tries to destroy it? That only you can save us? I think maybe you could have if you’d made a different choice.”
Merrick looked at him in bewilderment, but they were interrupted by a loud bang. Kaiden and the others looked up as another node in the grid collapsed. “What the hell?”
“His shots must have destabilized it,” Sasha stated. Unlike the first node, this one didn’t merely sink in place. It fell off its railings and plunged floorward at the rear of the room.
“Chiyo, Genos!” Kaiden shouted and stood quickly to run to his teammates. A hand caught his ankle and he looked coldly at the wounded man. “I intend to kill you anyway. Do you merely want to make it happen quicker?” he demanded and brandished Debonair.
“What choice?” Merrick demanded and his features betrayed desperation and even a touch of the madness he suspected had hidden in him this entire time. “What was the choice that could have changed this?”
He ripped his foot away from the man. “It was you, Merrick,” he responded. “You didn’t have a vision. You lost your mind and made a fake vision real. Whatever the hell you saw that would destroy humanity, that darkness was you.” Merrick’s face scrunched, first in anger, then in confusion, and back to anger, before his eyes widened and he let his head sag against the floor. The ace turned away and strode to the core’s terminal to help his friends, while the AO leader uttered a loud, drawn-out laugh behind him.
“Of course! It is such an obvious solution.” The man continued to laugh as he stared at the ceiling and arcs of energy began to tear into the walls and floor around him. “As humanity has always done, it creates something to destroy itself.”
Chapter Fifty
“Chief, what can we do?” Kaiden demanded as he ascended the stairs.
“Well, we had a plan,” the EI stated. Intermittent waves of energy pushed against him and slowly drained the rest of his shields as he waited for the full explanation. “But that ain’t gonna work now.”
“We can still get the shield on,” Chiyo assured him.
“Will that do anything?” he asked,
“It’ll buy us more time to evacuate.” She looked at him and her visor slid open to show eyes filled with concern.
“Can we even get out of the blast radius?” he asked.
“Maybe. It would be close, but it all depends on if we can leave right this second. Even then, most wouldn’t be able to make it out. It’s not like the Omegas will simply lay down their arms at this point,” Chief elaborated.
“There is the failsafe, remember,” Genos called and ran from the other side of the walkway.
“What failsafe?” Kaiden asked and turned to the Tsuna.
“The siphon—below the room.” The engineer pointed down. “It can stabilize the core by absorbing the excess energy.”
He threw up his hands. “Why wasn’t that the first option?”
“Because it’s dangerous, Kaiden!” Chiyo replied. “It was dangerous even before we lost the second node. All the excess energy will be siphoned to the generators and at the current rate the power is being expelled, it could tear the person activating the failsafe apart.”
“And is it any less dangerous to let it explode?” He made his mind up and put his helmet on. “Where is it?”
She shook her head. “No, Kaiden! We can find another way to—”
“I’ll get the hatch open and lead you to it, partner,” Chief offered and appeared in the HUD. An image of a hatch opening followed a moment later.
“So you’re good with this then, Chief?” Kaiden asked. “You know they can’t simply pop you into another soldier.”
“I wouldn’t want another one anyway,” he said. “You’ve been enough of a pain in the ass that you’ve grown on me.”
“Kaiden, don’t!” Chiyo demanded. “Please, give me time to—”
