“I would imagine that they wouldn’t see that as the most professional use of my time.” Kaiden chuckled. “But that’s not what I’m after. Do you still have that message from Julio saved?”
“Yeah. Do you want me to bring it up?”
“If you would.” Kaiden nodded. The letter appeared in dim yellow letters across his HUD.
Hola, Kaiden,
It was good to see you. I wondered how things panned out after you left for that Academy. It’s good to see how far you’ve come after all that, making something of yourself and showing some of those prissy bastards what a Dead-Eye can do. That’s great, my friend.
However, considering what I’ve heard about the fees and such from that place, and the fact that you guys seem to do most of your training in virtual reality—is that for real?—I thought you could use an excuse or two to knock some heads and get paid while doing it.
I was gonna get this to you sooner but had to deal with a few things here at the lounge before I could. I chatted with the gig dealer here in Seattle and heard that you were already thinking the same thing I was and got a couple missions under your belt. A good thing. If you’re interested in continuing your new practice, get in touch with me. I got access to a few higher paying gigs and some connections to rogue ports and guilds all through North and Central America. I’ll have to set you up on one first considering how green you are in the eyes of some of these guys. Even your Dead-Eye credentials will only get you so far, but afterward, you’ll have your pick, my friend.
Shoot me a message when you got the time and I’ll get the order in. If you’re not feeling it, you should still come down sometime. I have a new whiskey you got to try.
Regards,
Julio Alverez
P.S. Those punks you dealt with that day? Haven’t seen them since, thanks for that.
“It looks promising,” Kaiden said. “Although he never mentioned anything like this when I was bouncing for him over the summer. He must have wanted me to prove my mettle first.”
“You gonna take him up on his offer?” Chief asked. “It sounds like the potential for good money.”
“No doubt. I’ll have to follow up with him. When do we get our first time off?”
“It all depends on how well we do here,” the EI explained. “If you pass with flying colors, you’ll only have to take the minimum number of workshops. If you couple that with your training and Animus sessions, you’ll be busy, but you have enough time to run a quick job every couple of weeks—nothing lasting longer than a few days, though.”
“And if we fail?
“That means make-up workshops, longer training sessions, and you’ll probably have to do a few supervised Animus trials. You’ll be swamped for at least the first part of the year.”
Kaiden looked at the closed door of the meeting room and could hear nothing from within. “Tsk, I can’t say I like sitting around here. At least in normal ops, I would have more of a hand in our outcome.”
“Hey, you played your part. Now, it’s her turn,” Chief said consolingly. “I’ll boot up some games or something and we’ll have to wait it— What the hell is that?”
“What’s what?” he asked and looked around quickly. Nothing seemed unusual and even the guards hadn’t moved. “Are you short-circuiting again or something?”
“Nah, not in here, you ass. I read something outside the ship, and it’s gotta be something big for me to detect it considering we’re in a dreadnought.”
“Hey, there’s something going on in the docking bays,” one of the guards called. He looked at his tablet. “The barriers are being cleared. Wait, no, they are being deactivated!”
“What?” another asked, “Why would they— Lieutenant!” The guard who had confronted Kaiden earlier returned, flanked by three other guards. All had blue stripes on their armor. “There’s something wrong with the systems in the docking bays. We need to inform the bridge that—”
The man’s warning was silenced as the lieutenant fired a blaster into his chest. Scattered energy blasts punched their way through the guard’s armor from close range. Those behind the lieutenant followed suit and killed the remaining guards who were too shocked to act quickly enough to defend themselves.
Kaiden scrambled to his feet and drew Debonair while he charged the Servitor, but a noise distracted him. Several shots from within the meeting room were muffled but evident, even with the doors closed. He cursed as he turned quickly to dispatch the hostile guards, only to be knocked to the ground by a blast from the lieutenant. The ace rose slightly, but his mask knocked against the barrel of the aggressor’s blaster with a metal click. The man’s finger eased back on the trigger.
Chapter Ten
Before the lieutenant could fire, both he and Kaiden lurched and fell when something crashed violently into the ship. The ace recovered quickly. He rolled and managed to halt his momentum enough to kneel on one leg and plant his other foot on the floor. He resumed charging the Servitor. Two of the guards turned to fire, and Kaiden used Debonair to shoot the rifle out of the hand of one of them. Three quick shots eliminated the second man. He fired the charged shot from the Servitor at the other guard. The blast erupted against his chest and pieces of his armor shattered and dropped from his body.
The last man helped the lieutenant up. Kaiden charged the Servitor again as he fired at them with Debonair. He wounded the guard twice in the shoulder, but the lieutenant scrambled out of the way and thrust his injured teammate into Kaiden’s path. The ace grimaced but dispatched the guard with a few more shots before he stood. He aimed the Servitor at the escaping lieutenant and squeezed the trigger. The shot narrowly missed him and struck the wall as he spun around the corner. The discharge knocked him into the wall opposite him, but he simply bounced off and continued his retreat.
“Dammit,” Kaiden grunted and took a moment to decide whether he should pursue him before another collision struck the Dreadnought. He stumbled and leaned against the wall to balance himself. “Chief! Do you have any idea what is going on?”
“It might not be obvious, but the Dreadnought is under attack,” he snarked. “That energy I detected was a warp gate. Something came out of it and attacked the ship.”
“Can you be any more vague?” Kaiden growled. “What’s attacking?”
“I can’t tell unless you can get me into an observation system or console to boost my scanner. Everything is muddled between the various energy outputs of the Dreadnought and whatever the hell is outside. The only thing I can say is that I pick up multiple readings—nothing too big so I assume that there might be a team of fighters and bombers out there.”
“Trying to take on a Dreadnought with a handful of fighters? That’s goddamn stupid.” Kaiden slammed his hand against the wall in frustration. “I’ll have to find a window to see what’s going on, but first, get in that panel and open the door. I need to see if Mack and Lancia are all right.”
“I’ll try, but considering it’s locked behind a code and you don’t have proper clearance, I might take a while if I can do it at all.”
“There anything I can do?”
“Check the bodies of the guards to see if they have ID chips or key cards or something. Or hope that the captain is still alive and can get them out of there. I’ll get to work in the meantime.”
Kaiden hurried to check the bodies for anything that could help them open the door. A bright flash seen from the corner of his visor revealed that a fire had formed on the other side of the hall. Whatever had attacked had done significant damage in a short space of time. He mulled over the events as he searched. The guards who had murdered these four all had blue stripes like the lieutenant. The attack occurred incredibly quickly and the guards had mentioned the docking bays shields being deactivated. Common sense told him something wasn’t right.
Did they get caught up in a mutiny? Was this intended to be a replication of the event that led to the creation of the Omega Horde? No, that didn’t make sense. That had happened on
a fleet of battleships, not on a Dreadnought, and the Io marauders didn’t exist at that time. He recalled that the chancellor had made a big deal about these missions being procedurally generated. What they now faced seemed damn intricate for that. He might have to pay Laurie a visit after this was done and give him an earful about how successful his new updates were.
Another blast came from behind him, and Kaiden whirled with both pistols drawn. He lowered them and breathed a sigh of relief. Mack stood in the doorway, and the doors themselves lay in a shredded heap.
“Good to see you’re all right, Kai— Damn, what happened here?” the vanguard asked. Lancia and the captain appeared behind him.
“Some of the guards—those ones over there with the blue stripes on their armor…” Kaiden used Debonair to point at a couple of the bodies. “They attacked and killed the others and were led by that lieutenant from the docking bay.”
“What? Lieutenant Dirk? Are you sure?” the captain asked, his tone a mixture of disbelief and smoldering anger.
“I never got a look at his face,” Kaiden admitted. “But he used the same weapon he was armed with at the dock and had the two stripes at the top of his helmet. All the other guys have different patterns on their armor.” He pointed to one of the bodies that had three vertical lines on the left side of the helmet and another that started at the forehead and swirled to the neck. “I assume that’s some sort of sign or designation.”
“It was intended as a show of support for the Io marauders—the survivors, as we called them. It was an idea Dirk and a few other members of the security force suggested. This doesn’t make any sense. Why would they betray the WCM? Why have they allied with the marauders?”
“I don’t know everything, but my EI said he read a warp gate activation before we were attacked.” Kaiden related.
“A warp gate? I never authorized—how did they even get their hands on one?”
“It would probably be helpful to know who they are,” Kaiden pointed out. He turned to Mack and Lancia. “I heard shots in there. Did the marauders turn on you?”
“Well, kind of,” Mack grunted and shrugged his shoulders. “One of them did.”
“What do you mean?”
“The leader’s advisor is the one who killed them and attacked us,” Lancia explained. “He had an ocular in one eye. I saw it flash only a few minutes after we began our discussion and he drew a hidden pistol and shot the leader in the head. The bodyguards tried to return fire, but when they pulled the triggers, the guns erupted and killed them. He tried to shoot at us, but Mack blocked and shot his arm off. Then he…he had a bomb and activated it when we tried to question him.”
“If it wasn’t for this fellow’s barrier, we would have been lost then and there,” the captain stated. “We live, but we have no idea what is happening, and something has locked me out of the security systems. That’s why we had to ask your vanguard friend to knock the door down.”
“I have over a dozen uses, but battering ram is one of the most fun ones.” Mack chuckled. “But now that we have a few moments to breathe, I assume we can safely say that ending this peacefully is no longer an option?”
“My objective is no longer listed,” Lancia said. Her eyes lowered, and her face revealed uncertainty. “I now only have to survive again.”
Kaiden looked at the despondent negotiator. “Now, I feel kind of bad. She didn’t get a chance to do her thing before this all went to hell,” he whispered to Chief but received no response. “Chief, are you there?”
“Yeah… Yeah, give me…” His response crackled with static.
“Again with that? Did something get into you?”
“I was in the middle of trying to get into the systems to see if I could bypass the lock when your big ass friend there slammed through the doors. It caused a hard reboot. I’m fine or will be fine when I get all of me back together, but maybe we’ll be more mindful of that in the future.”
“All right. I’m glad your back with us.” Kaiden looked at Lancia “I’m sorry that this kinda turned more into our thing than yours,” he apologized and gestured at himself and Mack. “I don’t wanna sound like I’m dogging you, but I don’t think diplomacy is really an option right now.”
The look on her face quickly snapped from despondency to neutral understanding. “I’ve come to that conclusion myself,” she agreed “What should we do now? I have no other priorities but survival. What about either of you?”
“Only to keep you alive,” Mack said. “What about you, Kaiden?”
“Same, keep her— Wait, I have something new coming on. It says that I need to keep the negotiator alive and either escape the Dreadnought or take down the leader of the mutiny?”
“Who’s that? The lieutenant guy?” Mack asked.
“It doesn’t say. That’s a hell of a lot to juggle right now,” he muttered. “Where should we— Damn it!” He swore as the Dreadnought was rocked by another explosion. “That’s starting to make me sick!”
“Wow, that’s a lot of fire,” Mack exclaimed. The ace turned, and his eyes widened when he saw that the small flicker he had seen before now engulfed nearly a third of the hallway behind them.
“Well, getting away from that seems to be the immediate priority,” Kaiden stated dryly.
“I know it’s a lot to ask…” The captain caught the trio’s attention. “But can you escort me back to the bridge? I need to get control of the security systems and main weapons. Without those, we’re compromised both outside and in.”
“Your weapons are down?” Lancia asked.
“If they weren’t, we would feel the aftershocks of the cannons firing. On top of that, our tracer guns are second to none. Whatever fighters or personal craft they may have wouldn’t fly for very long.”
Lancia nodded, but her eyes wandered to the side in thought. She turned to Kaiden. “If nothing else, helping the captain will stabilize the dreadnought. We can decide how to finish this from there.”
“Sure, or we could simply find a batch of escape pods and be done with this,” he retorted.
Though he couldn’t see Mack’s face, he imagined that he had a similar shocked expression to Lancia and the captain’s.
“Uh, pardon my friend and me a minute,” Mack mumbled. He gripped the ace’s shoulder. “We’ll be right back.”
“Here, Lancia!” Kaiden tossed her the Servitor as Mack dragged him away. “Keep a lookout!”
The soldiers walked to the end of the hall where the fire raged. “Is this some sort of ruse or did you actually want to talk in front of the raging inferno?”
“I thought that maybe you were knocked on the head or something and the fire would snap you out of it,” Mack countered.
“Don’t go into therapy.” Kaiden deadpanned. “Knock it off, would ya?”
The vanguard shook his head. He threw his arms back as his barrier energy sparked to life and clapped his hands together. The blast of energy smothered most of the fire, although a few small embers and flames remained.
“Nice trick.”
“Quit it,” Mack demanded. “What’s with you?”
“What? About wanting to get the hell out of here? What’s the matter with that? We’ve done the job, and now, they’re goofing with us.” He slid Debonair into its holster and his hands into his pockets. “It’s not my fault my enthusiasm is waning.”
“Still, I mean… I know we only worked together during the Death Match, but both there and in here you showed you liked to fight and to get things done. I respect that.”
“I’m much obliged, but I don’t see the problem here.” Kaiden rolled his head like he was trying to get a stubborn crick out of it. “I’m not saying we should give up but that it would simply be easier to go with the escape route than run this little side mission and then find out who the ‘leader’ is… Although, if it is the lieutenant, I’ll be pissed that I didn’t kill him when he ran off.”
“You let him go?” Mack inquired.
“I didn’t th
ink he was that important. Plus I was knocked off my feet by all the damn explosions, then you appeared and it slipped my mind,” he said defensively.
They continued to bicker and argue. Lancia and the captain looked on, and the concern and impatience on the man’s face became more evident.
“For someone who was so protective of his weapons, I would have never thought of him as a coward.” The captain huffed his irritation.
“He’s not,” Lancia stated firmly. “Both of them got me here, and I know about other accomplishments of his. Maybe he’s simply annoyed about how things have turned out. He’ll come around.”
“And while he takes his sweet time finding his spine, the chaos onboard only grows worse,” the captain muttered “I may have to go off on my own. I can’t afford to stay here much longer.”
“Leaving sooner won’t matter if you die. If there are a lot of hostiles on board, they will be sure to try to stop you from reaching the bridge.”
“There is that old saying, ‘the captain goes down with the ship,’ and if that does happen, I want to have tried my damnedest to stop this mutiny, not stand here twiddling my thumbs.”
Lancia looked at the determination on the man’s face and at her Servitor. “Then let’s get you there.”
“This is about free time?” Mack asked incredulously.
“It’s about what I can do with it,” Kaiden corrected “Either way, this test contributes to how the next few months will play out for us. We have a chance to end it now and pass. I think we should take it.”
“Fair enough, but what about bonuses?”
“What bonuses? They never said anything about bonuses. Those are usually for the big tests.”
“We only have one big test this year, and it’s at the end of the year.” Mack tapped the side of his helmet. “Things are different this year. Think about it, why would they give us two different ways to end it? One lets us pass, one hundred percent, A-grade, but the other goes a little beyond.”
Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance Page 100
