Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance

by Joshua Anderle

  “How’d y’all do?” Kaiden asked.

  “Pretty damn good. Cameron made a killing when the Honor started,” Luke stated.

  “I simply picked off the loners and set up a few traps throughout the building. I got a couple of kills without us even being there,” He bragged before he crossed his arms and stared at Kaiden. “Had to ruin my fun, didn’t ya?”

  “Look at it this way: at least you didn’t have to take me on.” Kaiden snickered.

  “Hey, guys.” Kaiden turned to see Flynn and his teammates running toward them. “You won, Kai?”

  “Should we tell them or would that spoil the surprise?” he asked, looking at Chiyo.

  “I think he would enjoy hearing it from you more than the head monitor,” she suggested.

  “Tell us what?” Marlo asked.

  “You guys also got the victory. Amber was still alive when I took out the core, ergo it counted for y’all as well,” he revealed.

  “Whoa, really?” The demolisher whooped. “It’s a good thing I saved your ass, Flynn. Worked like a charm!”

  “You keep reminding me.” The marksman sighed, then chuckled happily. “You did good, big man, and good job on not dying, Amber.”

  “If you could tell that pointing behind you and ‘look out’ are signs of warning, you could have lived too,” she snarked.

  “Hey, my valiant sacrifice saved the winner, which let us win. I think that makes me MVI.”

  “MVI?” Kaiden asked.

  “Most valuable initiate,” Flynn explained, and the ace slapped his hand against his face.

  “You can just stick with MVP. Besides, we won’t be initiates for long.”

  “Not within the hour,” Jaxon noted. He, Silas, and Izzy joined the others.

  “Good to see you, Jaxon.” Luke shook the Tsuna’s hand. “How’d you fare?”

  “Well enough, but we didn’t get to see the test to its completion.” He eyed the winning team. “I have been informed that you are responsible for that.”

  “So are they,” Kaiden said, pointing to Flynn and his group.

  “You were able to make it to the end, kin Jaxon?” Genos inquired.

  “We did, as a full team as well. Your biologist friend was quite helpful in that regard. Thank you for sending him to us.”

  He looked up, recalling the test. “Ah, yeah, Julius. I need to see if I can network with him and his team later.”

  “He mentioned the same to me. We will see if we can find them after the ceremony,” the Tsuna suggested. “What about you, kin? Were you able to reach the end with your team?”

  Genos tapped his fingers together. “Well, not to the very end. There was a potentially catastrophic situation and—”

  “He saved our asses. Took down an Asiton droid by himself when it was going to self-destruct in our faces,” the ace interjected. “Took one for the team. It was because of him that we were able to finish at all. His cannon helped even after he was gone, so he was there in spirit.”

  “I see.” Jaxon nodded appreciatively. “Well done, kin. Your skills as a warrior are beginning to match your experience as a scientist. I’m proud.”

  “Thank you, kin Jaxon.” Genos bowed.

  Kaiden began to smile, but his eyes went wide as he heard a number of screams from the main lobby. He and all the other initiates ran through the hall to see what was causing all the commotion. The ace frowning once he saw all the fuss. “Seriously? He’s just waltzing around now?”

  “Would you dumboms quiet down? You never seen a Sauren before?” Wulfson snarled, waving his hands as if he were swatting at the shocked initiates.

  “I did, during the test, It tried to kill me!” one of them shouted.

  “Did it?” Raza asked, his voice a low snarl.

  “N-no. We got away.”

  “Then it was not a true Sauren. We do not let our prey escape,” he snapped.

  “Hey, easy there, Raza. Don’t go making all these nice young kids start wetting themselves on their big day.” Wulfson chuckled. He glanced up and spotted the ace. “Oy, Kaiden. Over here.”

  “It’s not like I can miss you,” Kaiden muttered. He, Chiyo, and Genos made their way over.

  “I watched your test with Sasha, his lady friend, and some other idiot. Raza too, of course.” He placed a hand on the initiate’s shoulder, his smile widening. “Nice work, boy.”

  “Appreciate it. Guess all that hard work paid off in the end, huh?”

  Wulfson laughed. “We haven’t even got to hard. We’re still at toddler.”

  Kaiden’s face fell. “Oh, joy. Looking forward to that.”

  “A Tsuna,” Raza whispered, studying Genos intently. “You are one of the ones I faced the first time I met Kaiden. You demonstrated considerable combat potential during the test, along with your ‘machinations.’ Tell me, are you of your people’s warrior clan, like Jaxon?”

  “Um, no, Leader Raza,” Genos stammered. “I am of a different clan. Science and forging are our practices, but I have trained in the warrior’s way.”

  “You do it well. Even without the threat of death, sacrifice is always respected,” he stated unequivocally, then looked at Chiyo. “And how do I address you? I understand your talents lie in the field of technology.”

  “Yes, sir. I am Chiyo Kana, an infiltrator,” she answered.

  The Sauren nodded and bowed to both. “Kaiden has earned my respect. It is good to know the company he keeps. You are both promising warriors.”

  “He’s really a softy,” the ace whispered to Wulfson.

  “Isn’t he, though?” The security officer chuckled.

  “You said you were watching the test with Sasha. Is he here?”

  The giant nodded up at the balcony. “Take a look.”

  “Greetings, students.” Zhang’s voice rang out, and the crowd quieted immediately. Kaiden turned to see him standing at the edge of the balcony. Sasha and Counselor Mya stood behind him, along with several other staff members. The head monitor’s face appeared on screens throughout the Animus Center as he continued, “A well-fought and well-executed test. I could hardly ask for a better trial run for a test this size, barring a few personal nit-picks.”

  “I guess he’s holding in a lot more,” Kaiden said, leaning toward Chiyo.

  “I will send your scores to your EIs in due time, but first, I want to let you know two things.” He let the moment linger before taking a deep breath. “This test had its rules, but there was one thing we were looking for in particular among you all. It is one thing to finish a mission; that is to be expected. But it is another to take the unconventional paths; to look out for oneself but also for others. To go beyond.”

  Zhang looked around the room as small whispers began, the initiates trying to figure out what he was talking about. “There is a reason I told you not to think of this as purely a Deathmatch. Although many of you did find success, there were many ways to win, including assisting your fellow initiates—something I was proud to see many of you doing of your own accord.”

  “Hey, bonus points.” Kaiden smiled.

  “You will each receive your personal scores, but I am happy to announce that you have all passed and will graduate to the next level.” Cheers erupted through the building. Initiates hugged and high-fived one another in celebration. “Well earned, but simmer down for now,” Zhang ordered. “No matter who has the highest score, those are not the winners this year.”

  The ace saw a number of students turn to look at him. He gave a slight wave, caught off-guard by the sudden attention.

  “As many of you who were watching the final moments of the test after you de-synced will know, some initiates were able to find the secret way of winning the test.” Zhang chuckled. “Last time it happened, there was no policy of allowing others to watch, but I suppose it is no longer a secret. We may have to find something else for next year’s test.” He looked up and held his hands in the air. “Kaiden Jericho, Chiyo Kana, Genosaqua Aronnax, Flynn King, Amber Soni, and Marl
o Leoman are the victors of this year’s Squad Test. I believe it’s customary to give them a round of applause.” The initiates obliged, Genos and Chiyo shrinking from the attention while Flynn and his team waved at everybody and the ace saluted the other students.

  “As is customary, there will be a closing speech before you depart. Unfortunately, the chancellor is unavailable, having left to go and meet with the World Council. However, Commander Sasha has graciously accepted the responsibility. The podium is yours, Commander.”

  Kaiden watched as Sasha moved to the front of the balcony. He felt Chiyo walk up beside him. “Well, you made it through a full year, Kaiden,” she said with a smile. “How do you feel?”

  He grinned. “I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble I can get into next year.”

  “Initiates, I will keep this brief. You have made it through all your trials, bettering yourselves along the way as students, people, and the leaders of tomorrow. You have earned a respite,” Sasha stated. “What has been accomplished this year is astonishing. We have had an incredible year, and even with everything that has been thrown at you and expected of you, you took it all in stride. Even when you fell, you stood up and kept going, training so you would do your best to never fall again.”

  The students nodded and some saluted the commander, and he continued. “Take the time to rest. Next year will bring greater challenges. You will have more freedom, but more expectations as well. Those at the top know they are only winners for so long. There will always be another challenge awaiting them. You are superb Initiates...”

  Sasha took off his oculars and studied the room with a cool gaze. “But now is the time for you to Advance.”

  Author Notes

  October 18, 2018

  First a HUGE thank you to all of you reading these books. Due to your enthusiasm, and support by ‘telling two friends’ this series has stayed in the top 600 for over a month now and (for me anyway) that is a very successful launch.

  I actually had a nice set of author notes for this book but apparently, the cat (of which I don’t own one) ate my homework.

  This book is supposed to go on sale in just a few hours, and I woke up and for whatever reason, decided to check my Slack messages.

  I received one from ‘Editor Lynne’ who explained that the author notes I provided were the ones for Damian 01.

  I figured, ‘ok, I’ll be up a few more minutes, but no problem. A quick jump over to the laptop, find the right file, Bob’s your uncle and I’m back to bed.’

  Except, no author notes.

  As I frantically started looking through all of the new files, I remembered an important detail.

  Microsoft Word wasn’t saving files correctly.

  OH YEAH.

  So, I went over to my TextEdit files and started looking for where I had copy/pasted the info before I went fixing anything.

  Nothing. Only the aforementioned Damian 01 notes.

  Oh Crap…

  Now, I was a bit more concerned. I looked around,

  I tried hitting ’CTRL-Z’ in a few files to see if my words were just a quick over-write and would magically reappear before I remembered, ‘You closed down Microsoft Word to see if it fixed your save issue, dumbass.’

  …Sonofabitch.

  In short, I had something about how we have 12-books for the Kaiden series (instead of my original 4) planned and then we will go off into space. Assuming the series is supported by the readers, of course.

  I also discussed how we will have book 04 out a bit later than the 2-3 weeks between these books. That has to do with these stories are longer than my typical 70,000 or so words in The Kurtherian Gambit and we don’t have any ‘banked’ now. So, they come out as fast as they can be written.

  Which, for 90,000 words takes about 5 weeks plus 2 for editing.

  Longer if there is an author-issue on the chapters. We will need to keep you updated on the status…

  Well damn. I realize that we don’t really ‘have’ an Animus FB group or anything. Since I’m already involved in so many groups, I don’t want to create a new one.

  I’m usually in the Protected by the Damned Facebook group if you want to go there or the Kurtherian Gambit Fans and Authors (or is that Authors and Fans) Facebook group as well.

  Feel free to ask in either of those fan groups (or message me directly, as well.)

  I apologize these author notes are rather sparse. At 3:00 o’clock in the morning, my brain is mush.

  Ad Aeternitatem,

  Michael Anderle

  Advance

  Animus Book 4

  Chapter One

  The dropship pierced through the Amazon’s biosphere with a loud snap. A quick glance out the window revealed dark clouds as droplets of water began to smear across the screens. Clicks and hums indicated that the team had begun to prepare for their landing and tapped against their guns or activated them. One of the mercs moved his arm to one side to cram something in his pack and knocked a grenade off his vest. He grabbed at it quickly but was beaten to it by the bounty hunter across from him.

  The man glared at him in annoyance from sharp, deep eyes framed by dark skin. He huffed an exasperated sigh as he handed the explosive to the merc. “I have no plans to die today,” he murmured. “But if I have to, I would appreciate doing it with my boots on the ground rather than courtesy of a fool who doesn’t know how clips work.”

  The man sneered and hooked the grenade on his vest. He slid against the wall of the dropship. “It wouldn’t have gone off from a small drop. It ain’t no Bouncing Betty.”

  The bounty hunter removed his brimmed hat and ran a hand through his cropped black hair. He replaced and lowered it as he snickered. In in a low tone, he said, “Considering the poor condition of your equipment, I wouldn’t be surprised if those things blew up in your hand the first time you tried to use them.”

  The merc’s sneer deepened and he looked at his two buddies on his left. “Do you believe this asshole? Mouthing off like this.” He pointed a thumb at the cannon on his back. “You’re gonna wish you were a little nicer when the shit goes down and you want the back-up of someone with some real firepower. What’s your little rifle gonna do against mutants?”

  The bounty hunter smiled and hefted his rifle. With a medium barrel and shortened stock, it had obviously seen a lot of use as the gray color had long since faded and long, dark spots dotted the barrel. “This is an old Medusa model rifle, so named because one shot could stop even heavily armored soldiers in their tracks. I like to call her ‘Mary,’ and this old girl’s seen me through more fights than you’ve probably been in. She’ll do the job just fine. I’m not sure I can count on you lot to do the same.”

  The three mercs scoffed and hissed their derision. One turned away while the one farthest away on the bench leaned forward and placed a hand on his knee. “Yer right, Hodder, this guy would do better to keep his lips shut than flap them at all.” He growled and withdrew a small bottle from a pocket on his jacket. “Why would you talk all high and mighty like that? You’re a bounty hunter and you’re slumming it on a retrieval mission with guys like us. You must have fallen on some hard times to work with mercenaries rather than catching us.” He unscrewed the top of his bottle, tilted it, and tapped the side until two pills fell into his waiting palm.

  “I have my own reason for being here.” The man shrugged and watched the merc pass the bottle across the silent team member to the big, grumpy one. He shook his head as he placed his rifle on his lap. “You’re gonna pop some Jolts just before a mission?”

  “Yeah? What about it?” the first, Hodder, barked. “Gets us all nice and peppy. We’ll get this thing done in an hour and be back in time to find some ass on the night strip.”

  “Did you see the tits on the gig dealer back at the port?” his companion asked as he downed the pills. “I want to see if I can’t find my way under that tight blouse of hers when we turn this thing in.”

  “I was too busy peeking at our lit
tle minx of a pilot.” Hodder snickered. “I hope you don’t get so amped that you can’t fly, Kane. I wanna see if she and I can’t have a little tumble in the cargo hold on the way back. I’ll bet I can make that ass bounce like the ship’s jets.”

  “Aren’t you a romantic,” another voice interjected. The three mercs and the bounty hunter looked at Kaiden, the fifth member of their team who sat in the dim, shoddy lighting near the back of the junker ship. “You said the same thing back when we took off. If you need a hole so badly, I’m sure the pinhole on that grenade you dropped would suffice.”

  “Another smartass?” Hodder growled. He aimed his cannon casually at the younger man with one large arm. “I’m losing my patience with the two of you. You can stop with your little comedy routine. It ain’t as funny as you think.”

  “I’m laughing.” The bounty hunter chuckled and earned a quick glare from Hodder.

  “Keep it up and I’ll blow you away with this,” he threatened.

  “You might wanna mind your word choice there,” Kaiden mused jovially and deliberately remained in the shadows. “And I don’t think your little show is much better than ours. Your acting is terrible.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Hodder demanded. “This thing is primed and ready. I don’t care if we’re one—” He shot another questioning glare at the bounty hunter. “Or two men short. We can do this fine without you. It’s dealing with punks like you that make chain gigs such a pain in the ass.”

  “For the first time so far, I agree with you,” he said with a laugh.

  Kaiden chuckled. He hadn’t yet introduced himself, and no one had bothered to ask his name. “If it’s one thing the Fire Riders are known for, it’s accomplishing missions with impeccable grace and success rates.” He pointed to the fireball and jackal tattoo on Hodder’s shoulder. “And not being one of the bottom-rung gangs of the Midwest who are basically the bottom shelf hobo wine of gig fodder.”