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

by Joshua Anderle

  “Just…stab me!” Kaiden grunted and tried once again to push Gin’s foot off as his faculties slowly restored. “Your constant…blathering is driving me…insane.”

  “Hey, there’s that spirit. I like seeing that in the company I come across.” The killer lifted the blade from the floor, grabbed the side of Kaiden’s helmet, and lifted his head up for a moment as if to study him. He shrugged and dropped it, and the back of Kaiden’s head smashed painfully into the ground. “I’ve developed the knack of reading people—had to, really,” he mused as he now twirled the knife in his hand. “I haven’t had a long relationship in the last few years, at least beyond a few where someone really wanted to kill me.”

  “You can add me to that list,” Kaiden hissed. Gin looked at him, his eyes hidden behind shades but his lips pursed together. After a moment of silence, the man sighed, clutched the handle of the knife in his hand, and stabbed Kaiden quickly in his upper thigh before he ripped the weapon out almost as quickly.

  For a moment, the ace didn’t react. The killer had moved so fast he was almost unsure that it had actually happened. But in the same instant, the pain flared, and though his helmet muffled his cries of pain, his assailant still seemed impressed by the volume. “You know, I think it’s moments like this that make me so…let’s go with endearing to people,” he mumbled.

  Kaiden quieted. He sucked his teeth and growled from the pain as he tried to regain his calm. Now that he was fully awake, he needed to decide how the hell he could escape the creep.

  “Kaiden, listen close. We’ve only got one shot at this,” Chief ordered. “You still have your blade, right?”

  “Tell me, kid, you got a name?” Gin asked and tapped the tip of the blade against the side of Kaiden’s mask.

  “Of course I do.” He coughed and scowled at the man. “I don’t see why I should tell you, though. I’ll simply tell the clerk I turn your bounty in to.”

  Gin smiled in an almost unnervingly friendly way. “I gotta admit, that’s a new one. Most last words are something about me fucking myself or merely garbled noises.”

  “Black-out visor!” Kaiden shouted, and his visor turned almost opaque. His assailant raised a confused eyebrow as Chief popped up beside his head. “Do it, Chief!”

  “Howdy!” he chirped and glowed as brightly as he could.

  The killer grimaced. Even with his shades, the light was way too bright. He shielded his eyes with his arm and Kaiden used the distraction to retrieve his blade from his gauntlet and stab Gin’s ankle. With a flick of the blade, he ripped through the back of the killer’s leg. Gin didn’t cry out as Kaiden was finally able to roll out from under his grasp. The ace snatched his Tempest that had been knocked to the floor and fell back against the wall but used it to steady himself as he fired. He held the trigger down until the gun overheated. Each shot struck the target in the chest or arms as he shielded his head. The man stumbled back and flipped over the table that he been on when Kaiden first entered. He vented the Tempest, threw it to the ground beside him, and retrieved Debonair.

  He aimed above the table as if he expected Gin to hop back on top and lunge at him.

  “What the hell was that?” A familiar shriek was easily recognizable as Kane’s voice.

  “Are you guys out there?” he called out.

  “Is that you, Kaiden? So you are alive,” Magellan responded. “We’ve got the device. You can come out of—”

  “Magellan, you have to get in here. Gin is—”

  “Nice moves, kid.” A chill coursed through the ace and he turned slowly to the table. There was no way the man could survive nearly sixty shots to his body. “Good grouping too—a little erratic but it shows promise.” The killer threw something over the table and it landed in front of him.

  It was his boot, the one that Kaiden had driven his knife into, but the wound revealed no flesh and blood but metallic chunks and severed wires.

  “It’s a shame you didn’t go for the other leg. That would have hurt like a bitch.” He chuckled. “It would’ve been the first time anyone did any real damage to me since…Magellan, come to think of it. Speaking of that cheeky little devil, did I hear you call his name?”

  “Chief, unlock the door,” Kaiden demanded. He swept Tempest up in his free hand and used the wall for support to avoid putting weight on his wounded leg.

  “I guess I should go and say hi. It’s been a few months,” Gin commented. “But I don’t wanna run off if you still want to tussle. But I do gotta admit that I’m more interested in my buddy Magellan than you, so I’ll make this quick.”

  He threw something else over the table—a black tube that glowed red.

  Oh, no. Disintegration grenade.

  “Chief!”

  “Got it!”

  The door slid open though it wobbled and creaked from the damage. Kaiden threw himself out and scrambled away on his hands and knees. He yelled at his team to get back as a blast of red energy erupted. Hands grabbed him and hauled him clear. Lazar and Magellan dragged him away from the blast while Hodder and Kane readied their cannons.

  “What’s going on, youngblood?” Hodder demanded. “Who’s in there?”

  “It’s Gin,” Kaiden called.

  “That space kil—” Kane’s voice stopped and he made a gurgling noise.

  “Kane?” Hodder’s voice was quiet and his tone disbelieving as he stared at the spike in his partner’s throat. The wiry merc dropped his cannon as his hands clawed at his neck. His eyes went wide in shock and blood dripped from his mouth and the wound.

  “Kane, what…what happened, man?” Hodder gasped. The surprise in his voice sharpened in pitch as he registered that his friend was mortally wounded. Kane slumped, and his knees struck the floor before his body followed.

  “Kane?” Lazar muttered. He took a moment to look at his fallen comrade before he pushed his shock aside. “Hodder, get yourself together!”

  “Who the hell did this?” the wild man snapped. He glared at the group with rage before he turned to the room Kaiden had left. Smoke and red dust, remnants of the disintegration grenade’s energy, still billowed out of the room and swirled in the air. Hodder raised his cannon, charged it quickly, and fired three blasts. They pounded through the smoke and exploded inside the room. Silence followed with no cries of pain or surprise and no curses from within.

  “Did he escape?” Lazar asked.

  “There were no windows in there, and the only door is that one,” Kaiden explained as he stood, removed a vial from his belt, and applied the thick substance it contained to his wound. He hissed at the burning sensation. The thick grey layer of the medication released an antibiotic and stretched over his wound to act as skin as it connected to the flesh around it and slowly drew it closed. He stood tentatively on the leg. It still hurt but the treatment did help. “I shot him with my Tempest—the entire charge before I had to vent it—and they all hit. He shouldn’t have survived that.”

  “If he was that easy to kill, Kaiden, I wouldn’t have had to hunt him as long as I have,” Magellan muttered. “It’s a barrier he stole from a lab on Luna. It was a prototype meant for elite vanguards and surrounds his entire body. Anything energy-based is useless.”

  “Get out here,” Hodder bellowed and fired another charged shot into the room. “You coward. You bastard!”

  “Hodder! Calm the hell down,” Lazar ordered, but the merc ignored him and yelled a challenge as he charged another shot. Before he fired, something struck the barrel of his cannon. When he released the trigger, the gun exploded and knocked the man across the room. The other three stumbled and Kaiden almost fell, but Magellan caught him.

  Hodder coughed and sputtered. Blood gushed from a wound on his forehead and his hands and arms were mangled from the blast, but his anger hadn’t subsided. He stood and bared his teeth as a figure walked out of the smoking room. The merc screamed and charged although Lazar tried to grab him. “Stop, you’re in no shape to fight.”

  Deaf to the warning, he trie
d to tackle Gin. “You took that explosion like a champ.” The killer laughed. The merc bellowed again and slammed into his target who used the man’s momentum against him and spun him violently. “But I have other guys to play with,” he said, his jagged blade in his hand.

  Kaiden tried to shoot the knife from his hand, but in one quick movement, Gin drew the steel across Hodder’s throat and dropped the body to the floor. The merc spluttered and twitched for a moment before he stilled in a pool of blood. Lazar winced, and his fist clenched as the killer stepped over the corpse.

  “So, Kaiden, is that right?” Gin asked. He stepped fully out of the smoke and studied the remaining men. This time, he wore a helmet—white like the rest of his armor, with indented lines and slanted, rectangular visors in front of each eye. The lines also encircled his chest and arms. The helmet had an odd, black triangle design that encompassed the eyes and forehead.

  “I’m happy to see you made it out of that. I have to admit, I felt guilty almost immediately. To take someone out with a grenade like that…well, it’s too impersonal, you know?” Gin rotated his head and stretched it quickly from side to side. The bones snapped as if in warning. “Especially now considering you were nice enough to bring my friend Magellan along.”

  The bounty hunter’s eyes were focused on the killer. Kaiden could almost see the wicked smile under Gin’s helmet.

  The killer raised a hand in greeting. “How have you been, Magellan?”

  In response, Magellan raised his rifle and fired several shots. Light blossomed from Gin’s hand, and the bullets struck it. Kaiden realized it was the same shield that he’d seen Mack and the other vanguards activate.

  “Hard-light shielding,” he explained. “It stops kinetic shots. Nifty, huh?”

  “I’m not as amused with all the knick-knacks you’ve picked up every time we meet.” Magellan reached into his coat, drew his pistol, and squeezed the trigger twice.

  The killer dodged the shots, but they exploded behind him, thrust him away, and covered him in smoke.

  “Ballistic rounds with a poison gas inside. It looks like you’ve picked up some fun things too.”

  Magellan donned a gas mask that covered his entire face while Lazar put one on that covered his mouth. Kaiden checked the seal of his helmet. He would be fine for now.

  “Where did he go?” the merc asked. He aimed his grenade launcher at the poisonous cloud. The bounty hunter lowered the gun with a firm hand.

  “That’s a volatile concoction. I had it specially made to deal with some of his ‘irregularities,’” he explained at a questioning look from Lazar.

  “It’s nice to know you think of me.” Gin cackled. Kaiden whipped around in search of the voice and decided the killer had to be cloaked.

  “Just be careful with your explosives. That poison is flammable,” Magellan stated. He holstered the pistol and held his gun at the ready. “What are you waiting for, Gin? I know you like me to chase you all over the damn galaxy, but this cat-and-mouse shit is done. Come on out. I’ll send my friends away, and you and I can finally settle this.”

  “It’s tempting. Our meetings have been fun but I agree, they’ve grown a little stale.” Gin’s voice sounded like it came from everywhere at once. “I would take you up on that, but the more, the merrier and all that. I still want to finish my talk with Kaiden there.”

  “Oh, great, he’s clingy.” Kaiden chuckled, but his ease vanished when he saw Magellan glare at him. The man’s eyes signaled that he needed to focus and that this wasn’t something to joke about.

  “Even if you did have the others hit the bricks, we wouldn’t be alone. Not now, anyway.”

  “There!” Lazar shouted, and Magellan and Kaiden turned. The killer had somehow climbed the room and stood on a grate fifteen feet in the air in the corner of the room.

  “They come to feed around this time.” Gin looked at the corpses and parts of the shriekers. “And you’ve destroyed their dinner, which means they will have to find a different meal.”

  As Kaiden aimed and eased the trigger down, he heard a loud, breathy hiss. What should have been a quiet, subtle sound now echoed around the dome. He looked up, and his eyes widened.

  Large white, grey, brown, and green scaly beasts slithered on the glass of the dome above, at least forty feet long and perhaps twenty in diameter with a frill around their heads. Large fangs protruded from their mouths.

  Nagas. The mutant snakes descended into the building. They began to cover the ceiling, and one of the abominations leaped through the hole and released a loud hiss as it struck at Kaiden.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The ace’s eyes widened as the great serpent flailed toward him. Its giant fangs, coated in an opaque liquid, were all he could focus on. Something slammed into his ribs and knocked him aside, followed by a reverberating clunk and a large blast.

  “Get it together, kid!” Lazar yelled, as fleshy chunks of the naga splattered his armor and fell to the ground. His eyes were wild with anger and accented with drops of blood from the exploded mutant. “Or else you’ll join the other two.”

  “They’re swarming,” Magellan warned. Kaiden, his leg still not properly healed, staggered to his feet and retrieved his Tempest. At least a half dozen nagas writhed down the walls.

  “Well, this has certainly become a crowded party,” Gin commented drily. Kaiden glanced at the killer who crouched on the catwalk above, his arms to the side and head tilted to observe the snakes. “They’re magnificent creatures, but I’ve had my fill of them the last couple days.” He turned his attention to the trio, who now stood backed up against one another. “I’ll be around, but I’d like to kick back and watch the festivities. I’ll play with the survivors, all right?” Kaiden could envision an elongated, toothy smile under his helmet as he vanished from view.

  “Dammit! He’s gone ghost,” Lazar growled and snapped his focus from Gin’s previous position to the circling beasts. They were either more cautious than the first or simply understood to keep their distance after seeing it blown to bits.

  “He won’t run,” Magellan stated calmly and aimed at one of the nagas. “Not when he has toys to play with.”

  “I stabbed him in the leg and tore through it,” Kaiden muttered. “But he has a new one. Where did he get that? Can he regrow them or something?”

  “No, nothing like that. Biologics aren’t really his thing.”

  “Yeah, he told me.” Kaiden pivoted slightly and took aim at a serpent that tried to slink closer. It coiled quickly to the side and hissed at him. “Is he a cyborg?”

  “Technically, yes,” the bounty hunter confessed. “But not the usual number of parts we typically associate with cyborgs. He still has a normal brain—well, as normal as a psychopath can have, anyway. He’s augmented his left leg, both arms, part of his chest, and might have added more by now. He probably simply swapped them out after you gutted it.”

  “I don’t want to babysit you two,” Lazar interrupted as he slid another grenade into the chamber of his launcher. “We should focus on the immediate threat. This room isn’t big enough to maneuver in with these things circling around like they are. If they get too close, you’ll either be wrapped or bitten. The latter is probably the better option for a quick death.”

  “Then we’ll have to take our leave,” Magellan stated. “Although I assume there are more of these things in the facility, this isn’t the normal amount for a cluster.”

  “Should we double back out the front?” Kaiden asked and fired a few rounds to keep the mutants at a distance.

  “You should. I’m not leaving until I get another shot at Gin.”

  “What? That’s—”

  “Same here.” Lazar agreed. Kaiden and Magellan looked at him with a mixture of shock and curiosity. “He killed my boys, dumbasses though they were.” He sighed and glanced at the corpses of his fallen gang mates. “I already don’t feel right knowing I’ll probably have to leave them here to be food for the mutants or fertilizer, but I do
n’t want to leave this place without a chance to avenge them. If there is an afterlife, I don’t want to hear them bitchin’ about it for eternity.”

  “It’s honorable and even foolish, perhaps, but I suppose I can’t condemn another person for their pride,” Magellan acknowledged. At another round of loud hissing, they focused on four more nagas that slithered toward the hole in the dome above. “And out come the nagas. For now, let’s focus on getting out of this room. Eventually, no amount of planning or scare tactics will stop them from getting a meal.”

  “Kid, do you still have that map of the place?” Lazar inquired. “Which direction has the most routes? Places we can run through and not get backed into a dead end?”

  “Chief, bring it up,” he ordered, and an isometric view of the map appeared on his HUD. “It’s the door in front of you, Magellan. It leads to a straight path that branches out to eight different paths. One leads back to the entrance too.”

  “Good to know, but we probably don’t want to head directly back into the jungle,” Magellan explained. “We’ve kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest here. We can’t slink through and avoid anything in the area like we did on our way in.”

  “Then how do we get out?”

  “If we get out,” Lazar corrected him. “Perhaps we can get to the roof or to a fire escape or something on the side of the building. We’ll hit the beacon and have the pilot pick us up there. If she whines about it, I’ll pay her from my share.” He glanced at Hodder and Kane’s corpses once more. “I’ll have more to spare now.”