Kaiden let out a deep breath. “Oh, thank God. I was beginning to think I was an alien racist or something.”
“And yet you still keep asking me things like what a dingo is and how big my knife is,” Flynn muttered.
“I consider that small talk, showing interest in Australian culture,” Kaiden explained.
“I promise you will learn a lot just by reading a damn tourist pamphlet.”
Kaiden looked back at the marksman, “Will it have anything about drop bears?”
Flynn opened his mouth but stopped as a wry smile formed. “Yeah, plenty. You’ll learn all about them.”
“It really is just a small detail. You see, my name here is ‘Genosaqua.’ The shortened form or nickname you would use is ‘Genos.’”
“Oh, well, isn’t that a huge difference!” Raul chuckled.
“It is, actually,” Jaxon said earnestly, staring down his teammate, “It may be a minor difference to you, but the word ‘Geno’ has a rather…odd translation for us.”
“’Odd’ as in bad?” Marlo asked.
He shook his head. “Not necessarily. It’s rather silly, to be honest. It was caused by a mix-up with my translation settings. But if you would be so kind, from now on would you refer to me by my full name or as ‘Genos?’ I would be most appreciative.”
“No problem, man. Sorry about the mix up.” Kaiden clapped a hand on the Tsuna’s shoulder, “’Genos’ rolls off the tongue better anyway.”
“I am happy that you approve,” Genos stated thankfully.
Kaiden tapped his chin for a moment in thought. “You’ll probably have to tell Chiyo. She was calling you Geno too.”
“She was actually the first one I spoke to after Kin Jaxon brought the issue to my attention. She was apparently aware of it to some degree, but she said she didn’t want to be rude in case it had some sort of meaning to me.”
“What? Does she speak Tsuna?” Kaiden asked incredulously.
“She says she has been looking into our culture and history during her free time. Much of what she is learning is coming from texts and history files that our people have given you. Not all have been properly edited, so she has had to make use of rough translations or use basic Abisa-to-Japanese programs. She says she has picked up some words and phrases along the way. She can actually hold short conversations. It’s quite delightful.”
“Girl has some odd hobbies,” Kaiden mused, taking his arm off Genos’ shoulder and stretching, “Well, considering all the confusion this caused, I think I can see why you went with such a normal name Jaxon.” Kaiden held his hands over his head and looked at the Tsuna ace. “But considering how exotic your kin’s name is, how’d you get saddled with that?”
“I choose it from a list of options,” Jaxon stated.
“I was assigned mine, but others chose them from Earth popular culture or gave themselves translated names or named themselves after objects or people they admired,” Genos added.
“So you guys have two names?” Marlo inquired.
“Geno…sorry, Genos told me when we first met that they speak in a sort of noise-based language. I’m not sure a name is exactly what we would understand. Maybe more of a marker.” Kaiden ignored the slightly bemused looks exchanged by members of the group. “Speaking of you, what brings you here, Genos? Wanna join in the fun?”
The engineer nodded. “Kin Jaxon offered to allow me to accompany him and join you in this training session. I need to develop my body more, as I’ve found myself in the field more than I expected.”
“They got you running around? I would have thought that as a machinist, you would be held in the back to repair machines or armor or something or maybe have you break into doors and hang back.”
“I am the closest thing the Engineering Division has to a soldier. There are other classes that focus on those type of roles. Most engineers who take part in direct combat use power armor or mechs or an equivalent. I have a personal arsenal that is best used while in direct combat and allows much flexibility in what I can accomplish, but I could always use an increase in stamina. I use a hover-board in the field for faster movement, but they break quite easily.”
“Particularly under laser fire, I would guess.” Kaiden chuckled. “It’s good to have you with us, but I got to warn you that Wulfson doesn’t play around. This will be some serious training.”
“You know, you keep building this up, but I gotta say my hype is dying down a little,” Luke admitted, looking around the empty room. “Where is this guy?”
“He’s probably in his personal office. It’s soundproof, but I’ll buzz him up.” Kaiden moved over to a console and pressed down on a button. “Hey, Wulfson, get your big ass out here. Me and some of my buddies came for some training, and you’re burnin’ daylight.”
Kaiden released the button. They heard a rush of air as a door in the corner opened. “Finally, let’s get this started you old—” Kaiden’s words died in his throat, and his eyes went wide as the others closed in around him.
The Tsuna turned around. Jaxon immediately took a fighting stance as his companion took a step back. “This is…unfortunate.” Genos gulped, the sound audible in the silence.
A large, reptilian creature stepped into the room. It had dark crimson scales and stood over eight feet tall. The creature looked at them with dark-gray eyes, the sharp irises widening and contracting within. It growled, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The head was triangular and sharp with black surrounding its eyes and mouth, giving it a menacing look as it leered at them. A leather chest plate was strapped over its torso. The armor included a shoulder plate on the left that resembled an elongated skull with a medallion of some kind pinned to the front. Arm bindings wound from its shoulders to its palms. Three large claws extended from each hand.
“What…the bloody hell…is that…thing?” Flynn stammered the question on everyone’s lips.
“Sauren war chief,” Jaxon explained. “That skull on its shoulder is the remains of an Elokk from a feral planet—a crown of sorts that they earn on their own.” Jaxon backed away slightly, and the group followed suit. “The medallion means that he…he’s personally slain over ten thousand creatures.”
“Different creatures or ten thousand individuals?” Raul asked.
“Does that matter?” Silas’ question held a low hiss of caution.
“It would add a way higher body count if it’s the former.”
“Damn terrifying either, way.” Luke raised his fists, the instinctive gesture almost ludicrous.
“Why is it here, Kaiden?” Flynn demanded.
“I don’t know. Wulfson never said anything about a nightmare lizard being my next sparring partner.”
“Don’t do anything. Do not agitate him,” Genos advised.
“He seems plenty agitated as it is,” Marlo muttered.
“Can’t we talk to him? He’s an ally, right?” Silas asked.
Jaxon continued to inch backward. “We have a truce with the Sauren, but that does not guarantee—”
The Sauren let out a fierce roar, causing the group to jump. Kaiden opened his jacket and brought out his pistol.
“Kaiden, disarm,” Genos exclaimed.
Kaiden didn’t hear the order, but it wouldn’t take him long to realize that he made a grave mistake.
Chapter Sixteen
The Sauren stared at Kaiden’s pistol, letting out another vicious roar as it charged at him. He fired off a shot, a blast of electricity leaving the barrel and connecting with the chest of the monster in front of them.
It had no effect.
The lizard-like creature didn’t wince, stagger, or even hiss in pain. It simply continued to stampede towards him.
“Move!” Jaxon shouted, pulling Kaiden away as the beast went to grab him. The two of them hit the floor, and both scrambled up quickly as the Sauren spun around. The large tail smashed into Kaiden and sent him across the room where he tumbled across the mats before smashing into a wall, knocking himself out.
The Sauren stalked towards Jaxon, who took up a defensive fighting stance. “We have no wish to fight you, war chief. Please stop this aggression.” The beast only snarled in response to his attempt to reason with it.
A large dumbbell went flying through the air, knocking the Sauren in his shoulder. He growled and looked back to see Luke, Marlo, and Silas throwing more weights at him. The beast roared and prepared to charge before something smashed into his back, and he stumbled to the ground from the impact. Flynn stood behind him holding a bench-press bar.
“I don’t think he’s giving us an option, Jaxon,” Flynn exclaimed, raising the bar up for another attack. But, as he swung it down, the Sauren grabbed it in mid-swing. Flynn’s eyes widened as it glared at him. Raul ran at them from the other side with another bar, charging at the Sauren with the bar raised in the air.
“I got him,” he shouted, before trying to bash the reptilian in the head, trying being the operative word.
The Sauren caught the makeshift weapon and pulled it quickly to one side before yanking it out of Raul’s hands and flinging it across the room. He then returned his attention to Flynn, snatched the bar away, and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. With a guttural roar, he threw the marksman at Raul. They crashed into each other and tumbled across the room.
Marlo, Luke, and Silas continued to try to beat him with anything heavy they could get their hands on. And while they did occasionally land a hit, it only seemed to jostle the monstrous alien rather than do any real damage. The Sauren stood and faced them when Silas threw a ten-pound medicine ball at him. The beast caught it with one hand, his eyes narrowing at Silas who was caught in a moment of shock before it moved its arm back and flung the weight right back at him with surprising speed.
Silas dove out of the way, the ball barely missing him as it slammed into the wall. A large crack spiderwebbed at the point of impact. Marlo and Luke charged at the Sauren, who leaned over and extended his arms as if inviting them to attack him.
Jaxon took this opportunity to leap on the massive back. He thrashed around in response and reached to grab the Tsuna, but Luke and Marlo tackled him, pinning his arms against his side as he let out another frenzied roar.
“What do we do now?” Marlo yelled.
“I don’t know. I hadn’t really….thought this out.” Luke grunted the words out as he tried with all his might to hold the beast in place.
“Hold him as steady as you can. I’m going to—” Jaxon’s words caught in his throat as the Sauren wrapped his tail around the Tsuna’s abdomen and squeezed. His grip loosened and the Sauren ripped him from his back and smashed him into the floor.
“Jax!” Luke cried out, briefly losing focus to look at his injured comrade.
“Luke, don’t let go,” Marlo warned, but the Sauren used the moment of panic to his advantage. He overpowered the two heavy soldiers, grabbing Luke by the neck and Marlo by his wrist. He held Luke aloft and spun around, snatched Marlo off the ground, and released him mid-swing. The hapless soldier crashed into a group of training dummies.
Luke began to kick the Sauren’s face and chest as he tried to pull the reptilian’s claws off him. “You are not going to stop me with something like this,” he declared, able to smash the heel of his boot against the beast’s jaw. The creature finally winced, taking a moment to rub his chin with his free hand. “So you do feel pain,” Luke jeered. “That means we can kick your ass.”
In response, the Sauren launched Luke into the ground. The Titan coughed and sputtered, “You’re gonna…have to do better…than that if you…want to finish…me,” Luke challenged between gasps.
The Sauren then began to pummel Luke with both hands, raising one into the air while smacking the other down as if furiously beating a drum. After a few seconds, he stopped and snarled at the downed soldier before walking off, leaving Luke to cough and mumble, “Yeah…that might…have done it.”
Silas returned, carrying a weighted rope. He dodged a swipe from the Sauren and wrapped the heavy cord under its arm and around its neck. Marlo hurried up behind them and grabbed the other end. They both pulled as hard as they could, trapping the alien’s arm against its chest and pulling tight against its throat. He began to pull away, dragging Marlo and Silas across the floor as they tried to hang on. The Sauren reached up with its free claw and pulled against the rope, eventually cleaving through it. The two soldiers fell back to the floor.
The Sauren leaped over to them, stomping on Silas and digging into his chest. Marlo scrambled up and tried to attack, landing a punch to the alien’s eye. The beast caught it and twisted his arm, so he yelped in pain. As he continued to twist Marlo’s arm, Jaxon recovered. Beside him lay a bag with a chalky substance inside, and he grabbed it. Across the room, he saw Flynn and Raul stagger to their feet. He waved at them and pointed at the weight bars on the ground, then at the bag, and finally, at the Sauren.
The two nodded and raced over to get the bars as Jaxon hurtled towards the beast. The Sauren saw him approach, tossed Marlo away, and stepped off Silas to face him. Jaxon faked a strike, sliding under the Sauren’s swipe when it tried to retaliate, and he threw the bag at his eyes, coating them in the dust. The Sauren shrieked in anger, swiping around wildly in confusion as it tried to get the dust out of its eyes by shaking its head.
Raul and Flynn joined the melee. They tossed a bar to Jaxon, and the trio began their assault on the blinded Sauren.
Meanwhile, Kaiden finally came to. He pushed himself up slowly and turned to take in the chaos. Marlo lay in the corner of the room, trying to get up on all fours before collapsing again. Silas and Luke groaned on the floor, while Jaxon, Raul, and Flynn were alternatively beating the Sauren with the bars and dodging its retaliating swipes.
He looked over to see Genos tinkering with something in the corner. “Genos, what are you doing?” he asked as he crawled over.
“What our friends are currently using as weapons will not be sufficient in bringing down a Sauren. They are quite durable, as you can see,” he replied, nodding towards the battle. “These armaments, however, may be more helpful.”
Kaiden realized that Genos was kneeling next to Wulfson’s weapon bench. “Yeah, but they are—”
“Protected by a lock-out barrier,” Genos finished, his tone amused. “I am working on fixing that…well, fixing by destroying, as it were.”
Kaiden leaned over for a closer look. Genos had opened some sort of hatch on the back of the bench and now moved the wires around with a seemingly competent hand. “What is that?”
“The power source for the barrier. We cannot simply destroy it as that would not stop the protection. There is an internal generator that would keep it going for another thirty minutes.” Kaiden heard a shout and saw Raul dragged along the ground as the Sauren tried to wrestle his bar away from him. “And it appears we do not have that kind of time.”
“I certainly agree with ya. How close are you?” Kaiden asked.
“Nearly have it. I need to overload the circuitry to cause the interior generator to deactivate as well. I’ve made the preparations, but I need a small power device to flood the system,” Genos said, looking around the room.
Kaiden looked back. Seeing his pistol on the ground, he moved quickly and grabbed it. “Genos, catch,” he called, tossing the engineer his pistol. “It’s powered by a miniature Tesla generator. Will that work?”
Genos opened a slot on the top of the gun, removed the generator, and looked it over for a moment. “This will do.” He nodded, wrapped a couple of wires around the ends of the generator, and picked up a pair of pliers with rubber grips. With studied care, he placed it against something in the hatch.
There was a loud electrical explosion. Kaiden saw the hazy field around the weapons rack dissipate, and he stood up and ran over. “Jaxon, Flynn, Raul, get back,” he shouted as he took a machine gun from the rack.
The three looked back and moved quickly out of the way as Kaiden opened fire. They ran over as Genos snatched up a s
hotgun and joined Kaiden in blasting the Sauren. The other three raced over to grab guns, and they all fired at the beast. The chalky dust kicked up as the bag was punctured and the Sauren was consumed in dust and laser fire.
Kaiden’s gun was the first to overheat. He vented the rifle as the others soon reached their limit. They waited to see if the alien would respond. Kaiden pulled his oculars from his jacket and put them on. “Chief, activate,” he commanded. The EI appeared on the screen.
“I knew you’d come crawling back.” Chief chortled.
“Now is not a good time for your bullshit, Chief. Is that thing still alive?”
“Oh, hell yes, it is. Those are training rifles; the shots would barely hurt you.”
“What?” Kaiden asked. Shocked, he looked at the side of the rifle which showed a screen that labeled the power level at minimum. “Dammit, Genos, these are training rifles!”
The Tsuna looked at his own gun for a moment. “Quite realistic replicas.”
“You can admire the craftsmanship later. Can we increase the power in these things?”
Genos nodded. “Of course, we merely need—”
“Are you quite done?” a snarling, grim voice asked from within the dust cloud. They turned to see the Sauren walk out of the dust, its glare unchanged.
“That thing can talk?” Flynn asked.
“Of course, with a translator. How else would we be able to make treaties with them otherwise?” Genos responded.
“They are just not partial to it.” Jaxon closed the vent on his rifle.
“Why did you attack us?” Kaiden demanded.
“You were going to attack first if you recall,” the Sauren growled.
“Because you were acting so friendly beforehand,” Raul muttered sarcastically.
“Why are you here?” Jaxon inquired.
The beast continued to stare them down, looking at each one of them individually as if sizing them up before his gaze stopped on Kaiden. “I have come for that one,” he stated, pointing at Kaiden.
Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance Page 44
