“Yeah, and my ass is grass now.” He grasped a grenade on his belt. “I should simply go for it. There’s nothing worse than waiting around for a beating.”
“Godspeed, you crazy bastard,” Chief acknowledged and chuckled.
He sprinted at the giant who threw his launcher over his shoulder and readied to fight. But instead of a direct blow, the younger man slid between the head officer’s legs and threw the grenade back. It opened and ensnared the target in a net that immediately constricted around the massive figure.
Wolfson was enveloped from his chest down and he cursed and immediately struggled against the snare. The mesh shifted slightly but held taut, but he was able to keep himself on his feet while his legs strained against his bonds.
Kaiden decided not to waste the opportunity. He fired his remaining shots and the volley finally forced his opponent back slightly. Unfortunately, he had to leap upward to actually strike the man’s face, but he used his momentum well to pound into Wolfson with everything he had. The giant continued his struggle to free himself but was finally forced to the mat. The ace managed a less than perfect chokehold, but it did enable him to hammer repeated blows to his adversary’s head.
Wolfson’s face was bloody and bruised and his eyes were closed. There was no way to tell whether he was conscious or not, but it would be stupid to assume anything considering who it was.
“So, do you give up, big guy?” Kaiden asked. He panted as he pulled against his trainer’s neck and sweat dripped from him. It had been a while since he’d had a good fight and he was exhausted, but he had to admit that nothing got his blood pumping like a spar with the less than gentle giant.
“Is that the best you can do?” his opponent asked and hawked blood onto Kaiden’s face.
“Are you kidding me? What can you do now? How are you even talking?” he demanded.
“That was a neat little trick that worked better than the first time, at least,” Wolfson huffed at his trainee. “But I told you before. You should have kept up with your training.” In one swift motion, he headbutted the would-be victor who sprawled off him. He snuck a blade from under his bracer and used it to slice through the net so he could stand. His grin broad, he rolled his shoulders and spat another small blob of blood.
The ace retreated warily. He dragged deep breaths in and balled his fists but kept his expression neutral. “Although,” the head officer added, “I suppose I should say congratulations. You landed some solid hits.”
“Well, that’s a small silver lining.” He chuckled, his gaze focused on his trainer. “But I’ll still be the winner here.”
“You have nothing if not your dreams, boyo,” the giant mocked before he suddenly hurtled forward and closed the distance incredibly fast despite his injuries.
Kaiden was too worn out to dodge quickly enough. Instead, he allowed his opponent to rush in close before he stepped to the side and used the man’s momentum against him. Unfortunately, as Wolfson flipped, he caught the ace’s arm in a vice-like grip and hauled him along for the ride. Their feet had no sooner found the mat than the giant spun and hurled his unwilling passenger like a ragdoll. The hard impact forced the air from Kaiden’s lungs, and he grunted with real pain. Despite the mat, he felt like he’d collided with a freight train.
He rolled and recovered quickly, but when he opened his eyes, Wolfson’s fist rocketed toward him like a meteorite on steroids. Instinctively, he ducked and raised his arms to lessen the blow, but the force behind the punch was much harder than any strike the man had dealt before. Pain rippled through him as the beefy hand connected with his meager defense and careened him back to roll off the mat and into a table, which he immediately propelled along with him into the far wall.
Wolfson was no longer holding back. It was about time, too.
Kaiden planted a hand on the floor and tried to push himself up. He finally managed to sit and leaned against the wall to drag in ragged breaths. The giant marched toward him, and the ace shook his head and used the wall to steady himself as he stood. Damned if he would have his ass beaten while seated. He slid and lost his balance, but as he prepared to stand once again, his hand connected with something. A quick glance at what it was brought a smile to his face.
He finally straightened, one hand resting on the wall for support, and opened one eye. Wolfson towered over him, his gaze like stone, and blood trickled down his face. “So, do you give?” the man asked, and his low, threatening tone made it difficult to tell if he was mocking him or dead serious.
The ace placed one hand behind his back and motioned with the other for his opponent to attack. “Come at me, you bastard,” he challenged.
“You still have the spirit, I’ll give you that.” The large man drew his arm back. “Well, I guess I’ll have to knock it out of you.”
As he moved to deliver what he obviously believed was the final blow, the trainee sidestepped him and tossed up a Tesla grenade that had been knocked off the table. He was behind his adversary when it went off but didn’t escape entirely. Wolfson took the brunt of the blast, however, and before he could recover, Kaiden spun and forced himself to move despite the fatigue and pain. He delivered a lethal kick into the giant’s back with all the power he could muster, and the man careened headfirst into the wall.
The head officer collapsed and Kaiden dropped seconds after. When the giant remained motionless, he took the chance to catch his breath. “So…do you give now?” he asked and grinned when Wolfson groaned.
The man placed a hand on the ground and tried to flip himself over. “I heard you hit the mat, so we’re both down now, as I see it.”
“Huh. You’re gonna be that petty?” the ace jeered. He took a deep breath and pushed to his knees where he paused a moment to muster his remaining strength and stood tall. The head officer finally managed to roll onto his back and squinted up at the triumphant soldier.
“Do you want to call this a win?” he asked and folded his arms, a smirk on his face despite the obvious injuries. “Take a couple of steps,” he said and motioned belligerently with his hand.
Kaiden frowned. “Really?”
His horrified tone teased a laugh from his battered opponent. “All right. Fine, boyo, this one is yours.”
The ace broke into a full smile before he collapsed onto the mat. “Finally.”
They both simply sat and laughed together for a moment before Wolfson added, “You know this still makes it thirty-four to one in my favor, right?”
“Fine, fuck it. I’ll take it.”
Chapter Seven
The ace lay on the medbay cot and relaxed as the effects of Dr. Soni’s patented “blue stuff” did its thing. It had been a while since he’d enjoyed the good doctor’s little proprietary blend, but it didn’t take long for him to remember why he appreciated it so much.
“Are you feeling better, Kaiden?” a soft voice asked. He opened an eye as Dr. Soni approached, her hand raised in a polite wave.
“Very much so, thanks, Doc.” He adjusted his head to get comfortable and closed his eye. “It’s been a while. Did you miss me?”
“This might come as something of a shock, but as much as I enjoy helping people, my job is to get them back on their feet so they don’t have to spend that much time in here,” she related and placed a tablet on the stand beside him. “How are you feeling?”
“Good…pretty damn good.” He sighed. “How’s Wolfson?”
“He’s already discharged himself. I’m sure you know he’s not much of a fan of hospitals.” She sat on the edge of his bed. “You really did a number on him, though.”
“I took him down this time,” Kaiden declared proudly. “It’s actually the first time I’ve won one of our little matches.”
“So, what does that make the score?”
He shifted slightly again and craned his neck to look at her. “I think he said the score was thirty-four to one, now.”
“So you still have a climb, then.” she chuckled and shook her head. “But plea
se, try not to come down here each and every time you fight. It’s not like you get a free ice cream cone after a certain number of visits.”
“That would make a nice addition,” he mused.
Dr. Soni motioned to the tablet. “I received a message from Commander Sasha. It appears he’s been looking for you.”
“He can’t have looked very hard,” he said and flexed his hand a few times to ease the stiffness. “I really only go to maybe five places on this island.”
“One of which is here,” she pointed out. “When you’re feeling better, head over to his office asap.”
“I gotcha.” Kaiden nodded. “Hey, Doc, before you go, have you given this stuff a name yet?”
“The serum?” she asked. “I wasn’t going to bother until I released it for general use, but I’ve kicked around a few ideas. I’m mostly partial to K brew.”
“K brew? What does that stand for?”
“What do you think?” she retorted as she stood and walked away. “Kaiden’s brew.”
“Can I help you?” a man in the Nexus offices lobby asked. Neither his tone nor his expression indicated any particular desire to be helpful.
“I’m Adva Kaiden Jericho. I’ve been told to report to Commander Sasha’s office.”
The official looked at his tablet and scanned through it for a moment before he nodded and gestured for him to proceed. “Take the elevator to the sixth floor. Your EI can guide you to his office, but head directly there and only there.”
“Right.” Kaiden walked briskly past him and over to the elevators. He called one down and entered, pressed the key for the sixth floor, and waited for the ascent.
“What do you think he wants?” Chief asked.
“I don’t know. It’s been a while since we talked face to face,” he responded thoughtfully. “Maybe he only wants to catch-up.”
“After all this time, he really strikes you as a guy who likes to shoot the breeze?”
“Hey, other than that, I have no idea.” The elevator reached the sixth floor, and Kaiden took his lenses out and put them on as the doors opened. Chief generated a directional line to follow to the commander’s office.
“Do you think you’re in trouble?” the EI asked after a moment.
“What is this? A daycare?” The ace scoffed. “I think I would have to report to the chancellor or something if it was extreme, but let’s not jump to conclusions.” He rounded the corner, approached the commander’s office, and knocked on the door. No one responded until a blue, glowing owl appeared above him.
“Uh…hello,” he greeted the EI, whose eyes circled in its head.
“Hello there, Adva Jericho. I am Commander Sasha’s personal EI assistant Isaac. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve seen you before, of course, but this is our first formal introduction.”
“Cool…um, nice to meet you, Isaac,” Kaiden acknowledged as Chief popped out to look at the owl.
“You weren’t so polite during our first meeting, Kaiden,” he accused and spun around the commander’s EI.
“To be fair, neither were you,” he retorted cheekily before he returned his attention to Isaac. “I heard Sasha is looking for me?”
“Indeed. Allow me to get the door.” No sooner had the EI disappeared when the door to the commander’s office opened. It was surprisingly dark in the room despite it being only the afternoon. A couple of lamps were on and the windows were covered.
Kaiden walked in and the door closed behind him. “Sasha, are you here?”
“Over here, Kaiden,” the commander’s voice responded. The ace approached a small, round table in the corner, where Sasha sat in a chair with his back to him and looked intently at something on a holoscreen. “I’m glad you could make it so promptly.”
“Well, I thought it must be important if you called me here directly.” He eased into the chair opposite the commander, hooked an arm along the back of it, and cocked his head questioningly. “So, what do you need?”
His host responded by taking a scroll device from his pocket and tossing it wordlessly at him. He snatched it out of the air and scanned it quickly. “This looks like… A contract?” He looked at the commander in surprise. “You got me a gig?”
“On occasion, I still get a few across my desk—not for me to perform, of course, but for advice or to pass along.” Sasha completed his work and deactivated the holoscreen. “This seemed to be up your alley.”
Kaiden returned his attention to the scroll. “A reconnaissance mission, potential retrieval if an item of interest is identified, and shouldn’t take more than a night.” He looked up and nodded. “The pay is good too, but with the test coming up…” He shrugged and let the gesture finish his sentence for him.
“I understand.” Sasha waved dismissively. “It’s merely something I thought I should bring to your attention,”
He held his hands up, mainly because he felt he needed to be honest and he didn’t want the other man to make incorrect assumptions. “No, no, I appreciate it but…well, previous engagements and the fact that… Okay, to be honest, I thought this might be some sort of test.”
Sasha linked his hands together. “If it was, you tipped your hand a little early.”
“I didn’t wanna come across like a dick,” the ace admitted. “But you’ve never really shown any interest in my extracurriculars before now.”
“Maybe because I originally thought it was a way for you to acquire finances before you graduated. But once I realized the types of missions you were undertaking, and the risks and rewards those missions entailed, I realized you were doing more than simply getting yourself fiscally buoyant.”
A couple of beads of sweat appeared on his brow. “Uh, yeah, you might be on the right track. But I did look into the Academy rules and they said nothing about trying to buy out my own contract.”
The commander nodded, picked up a glass of water, and sipped from it slowly. “So, that is what you are looking to do.”
He blinked rapidly in confusion. “Yeah…wasn’t that where you were leading?”
“Certainly. But that was purely guesswork. I can only assume so much without your confirmation.” He took another sip as the words sank in. Kaiden groaned and knocked the palm of his hand against his head in frustration.
Chief chortled in the back of his mind. “You fell for the oldest trick in the book, dumbass.”
“Yeah, yeah, quiet down,” Kaiden grumbled. “So, are you trying to talk me out of it? I don’t see why. Either way, the Academy gets its money. It’s not like I’d scam you, or is it an honor thing?”
“No, nothing like that. I have no intention of stopping you, Kaiden,” Sasha assured him. “I called you in here to satiate my curiosity.”
The ace finally relaxed a little and kicked his feet up on the table. “I can try, I guess, but about what exactly?”
“I assume that you plan to buy out your contract once you graduate,” the commander ventured.
“I thought that if I did so beforehand, that would be plain dumb,” he admitted. “If I did that, what would keep me here?”
“You mean besides the fact that would mean you essentially paid for your own education like you would at every other college?” Sasha pointed out.
A fairly long silence was followed by a sigh that spoke to Kaiden’s feeling of idiocy. “I guess Mia’s whole speech on the first day made me think that the contracts were a big deal. If you couldn’t sell me off, I didn’t have much value.”
“This Academy does make its own profit, yes, but we don’t look at you all as simple cattle,” Sasha grunted with evident disapproval. “Perhaps we should have a conversation at the next faculty meeting about making that clearer.”
“Or it might simply be my personal paranoia,” he admitted. “Plus, I never brought it up because I wasn’t even sure it would work. I have a three-million-credit debt, but the whole idea of the contract is that you sell them to a company for well over what they are worth, right? They might not even accept me buying mysel
f out. I couldn’t find any records of it happening before.”
“I can tell you that it has happened before—under special circumstances,” Sasha stated quietly. “That’s why I want you to be clear on what you plan to do. I could be a potential asset in your plan.”
“Really, you would do that for me?”
“Again, that depends on you.” The commander placed his glass on the table and folded his hands again. “Have you thought that far?”
Kaiden took a deep breath. “Honestly, if you had asked a month ago, I would have said not really, but I have knocked an idea around.”
“Then let’s hear it.”
He nodded and coughed into his hand to hide his nervousness before he spoke. “A merc company. I’ve thought of starting a mercenary group.” He tensed when he saw the other man’s brow furrow. “I know they don’t usually have the greatest reputations—well, morally, at any rate. Guys like the Omega Horde and Red Suns certainly have great reputations for destruction and the like.”
“Among other unsavory things, yes.” Sasha nodded. “Most merc groups are run more like terrorist organizations or interstellar gangs than what their original purpose was intended to be.”
“Yeah, but I plan to bring it back to basics,” the ace explained. “Look, I don’t know what you think about gangs, but you took a chance on me and I can tell you that mine was at least somewhat respectable. We did a lot of good.”
The commander moved a hand across his chest as if to straighten or brush lint off his jacket. “I’m not one who thinks every gang or collective is nefarious.”
“I know I have two years left, but even with that, I don’t think I’ll exactly be cut out for typical military leadership.”
“What makes you think you would get a leadership role?”
“Come on, I’m an ace. That’s the job description,” Kaiden countered. “And yes, before you say it, I know that I can still change classes. But I have been adjusting to the whole leader thing in my own way. I don’t hate the idea anymore, at least.”
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 28
