“I know you may be shaken and that we might have lost at least part your trust, but I promise—as a member of the academy board—that we will do our best to make sure another event like last year’s will never happen again,” Sasha vowed.
“In turn, we ask you to step up and show those younger than you—the advas who weren’t at the Animus center and the new initiates—that they have nothing to fear,” Akello continued. “We will run a siege mission with two teams of eight on each side. You may choose the teams if you wish or you will be randomly assigned. Also, you will go in together as a gesture of solidarity and show anyone who wants to darken the light of this academy that we will not cower from them.”
“Damn straight,” Kaiden whispered. He focused on his friends and counted quickly in his head. With the new girl, they had exactly two teams of eight. This would work out well. He walked past Akello so he was in range of the camera and took a place beside the pod. “Good speech, Head Monitor, but I prefer action.” He looked at his friends and waved them over. “Come on, guys. Let’s get to kicking each other’s ass!”
Chapter Four
When Kaiden synced into the Animus, he was surrounded by ornate black walls, a beautiful floor, and two statues featuring some sort of angel or fairy figures. A little bewildered, he glanced at his team. Chiyo, Genos, Marlo, Amber, Flynn, Otto, and Indre looked as confused as he was.
“Did we…uh, get sent into the wrong map?” he asked and frowned as he studied the idyllic interior of the building they were in. “It seems a nice enough place here, considering how much it’ll be busted up.”
“Nope. It’s a replication of a corporate building in Vancouver,” Chief explained. “They are a medical corporation—the foam that saved your ass back when Gin stabbed you? That was one of their creations.”
“I’ve never been here, but my mom worked for them for a time. Eden’s Bounty,” Amber confirmed.
“Opening objectives,” Chiyo announced and folded her arms as she read the screen. “We are the defenders in this round and must protect an experimental serum in the main labs from being stolen. We do that either by taking it and escorting it to the transfer pod in the basement of the building or by eliminating all hostiles on the attacking team.”
“Well, I know where my votes will go,” Kaiden quipped.
“Not to make it seem like you’re easy to read, mate, but I’ll guess option B?” Flynn asked and opened a loadout screen.
Kaiden followed suit. “Oh, certainly. I prefer a good deathmatch to an escort mission anyway.”
“In this case, Kaiden does have the right idea,” Otto admitted. “Those transfer pods take forever to set up. Even with Chiyo and I together, the prep work would take a long time.”
“I could help too,” Indre offered. “Granted, as an agent, I’m more trained to use fancy gadgets and all that, but…well, I’m still in the tech division.”
Otto nodded but threw his hands up. “I appreciate it, but even with three techs, that might cut the time down to around ten minutes. That doesn’t include the time it would take to get the serum, make our way to the basement, and load it up, all while having to deal with the attackers.”
“That’s also not including what they might do to sabotage us in the meanwhile,” Amber pointed out. “On their side, it’s Jaxon, Silas, Izzy, Raul, Cameron, Luke, Mack, and Julius. They don’t have any tech, but Cam and Raul specialize in traps, and they have two heavies compared to our one.”
“Heh, one has a hammer and the other plays with pretty lights.” Marlo chuckled and closed his loadout screen and his cannon appeared in his hands. “I can take them both.”
“We also have Jaxon, Silas, and Izzy—all great soldiers with Julius to back them up and heal them,” Chiyo added.
“Or buff them,” Otto replied. “Julius is a biologist. He does more than simply stitch work. I’ve seen Mack plow through dozens of grunts when Julius injects him with that violet juice of his.”
“So your mom’s not the only one with special serums, eh?” Kaiden said jokingly to Amber.
“Do you think that stuff is as good as the K-brew?” she retorted.
“So that’s the official name now?” He looked a little smug. “Anyway, the blue stuff is great for recovery, but I certainly don’t feel like mowing down a battalion while I’m on it.”
“That’s a surprise—something that can actually calm you down.” Chiyo snickered and Kaiden rolled his eyes behind his visor.
“So what’s the plan?” Flynn asked. He held his rifle behind his shoulders and cocked his head expectantly.
“According to the map, we have about ten minutes before they reach their landing zone. After that, however long it takes them to infiltrate the building,” Genos estimated. “I suspect it won’t take long unless they aim for a very obtuse route to confuse us.”
“Here’s an idea.” Marlo threw Kaiden a challenging look. “They have an ace in Jaxon, and we have an ace here in Kai, so why don’t we put the two of you head to head? See who’s the better leader.”
The group responded with various muted mutters and mumbles and Kaiden could hear Chief giggle in his head. “Oh, screw you guys.”
“You’ve said it yourself, Kaiden. You’re more of a lead by example guy, not a tactics and strategy guy,” Flynn reminded him.
“I’ve been working on it,” he said defensively.
“It only took a couple of years,” Amber muttered.
“Ha-ha…and it’s not like I haven’t saved our asses with my plans before,” the ace grumbled. “I, for one, am plenty happy to go with Marlo’s suggestion.”
“Hey, I’m willing to give it a shot,” Flynn confirmed. “But know that if it goes tits up, that’s all on you.”
“I’ll take it and show you there’s a reason I got this class.”
“Favoritism?” Otto interjected.
“Favor… What? How does that make sense? Ace is one of the hardest classes.”
“It is also a class usually exclusive to those who go through the proper channels,” Chiyo countered.
Kaiden pointed at the infiltrator. “Says the woman who got here via invitation?”
“Indeed, but one of merit, not a bar fight,” she stated simply.
Kaiden held his finger up, then used it to tap on the side of his helmet. “Okay, granted, but I’ve learned recently it wasn’t exactly like that.”
“It is now eight minutes until they make their landing,” Genos notified the group.
“Enough grandstanding. Can we have some orders here, oh great leader?” Flynn asked.
Kaiden pounded his fists together as an idea coalesced rapidly in his mind. “Right, okay, let’s see… Well, I’ll work with the fact that they have two heavies and Cameron—who, let’s face it, is about on par with me when it comes to destructive habits.”
“Yeah, I’d agree,” Amber admitted.
“I’ve only worked with him a couple of times, but that seems to be the case.” Otto nodded.
“I doubt a full stealth attack is in the cards, so let’s work on fortifications. Who chose traps or reinforcement gadgets?” Flynn, Marlo, Genos, and Indre held their hands up. “Good on you. The rest need to plan ahead.”
“I notice you didn’t raise your hand, Kaiden,” Chiyo pointed out.
He folded his arms and opened his visor to glare at the infiltrator. “You know, you’re being awfully cheeky this year.”
“The year has only started.”
“It is quite the uptick.”
“Keep going, Ace,” Flynn ribbed.
Kaiden nodded and refocused on the group. “All right, Sir Longshot, get up top and find a position. Give us an early reading on their progress when they start heading our way.”
“The map doesn’t provide an exact location for their landing area, but it seems to be in the western quadrant,” Genos advised them.
“That’s better than nothing.” Flynn put his rifle away and looked around with a small frown. “Does anyone know wher
e the express elevators are in this place?”
Kaiden and the rest of the group pointed to the left. Flynn was apparently the only one who had not seen the elevator lobby. “Right. I’ll get going now.”
“Make sure to set up a mine or something if you have it up there in case one of them escapes that way,” Kaiden called. Flynn held a thumb up and departed. “All right, Marlo and Genos, secure the area around the objective. Set up traps, walls, or whatever you have, then get back here.”
“Do you think they’ll go for a frontal assault?” Chiyo asked as the two departed.
“Most of them will, at least. They might split up but we can use the opportunity to eliminate them when they get here.” Kaiden turned to the remaining four members. “Okay, Chiyo and Otto, go do your thing and bring on any interior defenses. Make sure they can’t get into the system to download maps or anything like that.”
“On our way.” Chiyo nodded. “It’s not very imaginative, but thorough and well thought out. Points to you, Kaiden.”
“What about me?” Indre asked and pointed to herself as Kaiden walked to the front entrance.
“And me?” Amber added.
“Amber, you stick with me for now, in case Marlo and Genos don’t get back in time and we have to hold the ground by ourselves for a while,” Kaiden answered as he placed a couple of thermals near the door.
“You know I can fight too, right? I am a battle medic, so battle is literally in my title,” she huffed.
“Yeah, I’ve seen you do it and you’re good at it too,” he confessed as he drew Sire and primed it. “But you’re also our only medic, period. We have plenty of fighters but no one else has the ability to heal themselves.” Kaiden checked his pouch.“Especially considering I forgot to get healing serum injectors like a damn moron.”
“Fine, I see your point,” she admitted. “What about my cousin?”
“Indre, I won’t lie, I’m a little confused about what an agent really does,” he admitted and approached her. “Can you give me the bullet points?”
She nodded and rubbed the back of her helmet awkwardly. “Uh…right, well, like I said, we are in the tech division but are more akin to spies. We work out in the open to retrieve objectives, locate targets, find information, that sort of thing. We are trained in armed combat, martial combat, and in the use of vehicles in combination with tech skills. But what makes us different from our scout counterparts in the soldier division is that we are also trained in the use of gadgets.”
“Um, we all use gadgets,” he said and held his shielding device up.
“We use a whole lot more, trust me, and they have many uses and are more specific.”
“Well, what do you have?”
She straightened and pressed a key on her gauntlet. “Well, this, for one.” A pod burst up from the back of her armor. He walked back a step when it erupted and a winged drone appeared. “This is a defense drone. I have another one as well, but that’s for recon.”
“That’s cool, but it feels like you’re stepping on engineering’s toes, though,“ he said, his attention fixed on the drone that circled them.
“These are based on a decker’s design. I don’t have the know-how to properly use most droids like an engineer does.”
“That’ll help the numbers. What else do you have?”
“I have tesla mines and emp grenades, a hacking device that lets me hack into most devices with only moderate security, tracking devices, a stealth generator, a soldering tool… Oh, also flashbang lights in my helmet.”
“What is—gah!” Kaiden yelped as two extremely bright lights flashed from two small points in Indre’s helmet.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I have them on voice control,” she apologized and switched them quickly to manual. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah…I just need a couple of minutes. Everything is white,” Kaiden said and shook his head in an attempt to restore his equilibrium.
“That’s about as much time as we have left,” Amber warned. “They’ll be landing soon.”
Kaiden nodded and blinked in an effort to regain his normal vision. “Indre, do you think you can set up some of those mines at the entrance?”
“I have five. How many do you think?”
“Let’s go with three. Even if I messed this up, my guess is that they will still pass through, even if it’s only to escape.”
“I’m on it. And…um, again, I’m sorry.”
He simply nodded and gave her an okay symbol with his hand as she ran off. Amber walked up to him.
“She’s really good if a bit eager,” she said in a somewhat conciliatory manner.
“I already figured that. She wouldn’t have been able to transfer otherwise.” Kaiden rubbed his eyes and closed his visor. It darkened to help him adjust to the light.
“Do you think we’re ready?” she asked and checked her equipment once more.
The ace rested his rifle on his shoulder. “Oh, definitely. I only hope I can see it go down.”
Chapter Five
They should have been there by now. Enough time had elapsed since the other team had dropped into their position, yet the attackers still seemed to be lurking somewhere as if waiting. Marlo and Genos had finished their preparations and were returning to the lobby to rejoin Kaiden, Amber, and Indre. Flynn was still on the roof but hadn’t seen a damn thing. Chiyo and Otto were settled into the security room, where they worked their techno-magic to bring more of the systems online. She had warned that there actually weren’t that many interior defenses outside of initiating a full lockdown, which could backfire on them if they were already inside. Kaiden asked her to turn on any turrets or trip alarms available but to keep the lockdown off for now.
“I still don’t see anything,” Flynn confirmed once again. “I’ve checked all quadrants now, in case, but there’s not a soul out there.” He was silent for a moment. “Actually, they didn’t load in any people or anything. It’s a blank city out here—a few lights and a light fog at night. Honestly, it’s disquieting.”
“They won’t bore us into giving up,” Kaiden said and leaned nonchalantly against a wall. “I would recommend you go ahead and come on down. My guess is they are getting ready to attack soon.”
“We haven’t detected them at all. What makes you think that?”
“Remember, they have Izzy with them. She’s a scout and that’s part of their whole deal—to find the best routes to their team’s objective. My guess is all this downtime is partly because they took a roundabout path to get here so they didn’t tip us off,” Kaiden explained.
“You could be right and I won’t complain. I’m starting to feel less like a lookout up here and more like an easy target,” Flynn acknowledged. Kaiden could hear him putting his rifle away.
“I recommend taking the stairs,” he advised.
“What? Why’s that? I’m nearly twenty stories up.” Flynn yelped.
“If something goes wrong or the power gets cut and explosions go off, do you really wanna be stuck in the elevator?” he asked.
There was a pause on the marksman’s end. “It is a fast elevator—”
“Hey, man, if you wanna roll those dice, be my guest. Lord knows I’ve made stupider decisions.”
The marksman sighed heavily. “It’ll take me a while to get back to you.”
“For now, meet up with Otto and Chiyo. We should be good down here if they attack from the front,” Kaiden suggested.
“Well, that all depends on whether or not they strike with their full force, sir,” Genos interjected.
His cheerful “sir” made Kaiden whip his head around. “Sir?”
“You are acting as our leader this mission, and kin Jaxon said I should practice traditional greetings and titles from now on,” the Tsuna explained.
The ace frowned but then shrugged. “It’s not a bad idea, I guess, but don’t worry about that around me, Genos. I won’t go into the military so it’s a pointless gesture.”
He nodded. “Understood, fr
iend Kaiden.”
Kaiden chuckled. “That’s a much better title. So, what were you saying?”
“I merely noted that if they come at us with their entire team, we would be outnumbered by three.”
“That should even the score in that case.” Kaiden nodded to the explosives and mines around the door. “Plus, you know your kin. He’s one of the best aces in our year and I doubt he would risk everything with a full-frontal assault.”
“I doubt he would as well,” Genos agreed. “However, without a proper tech or engineer on his team, I’m sure he has realized he’ll at least need to make a diver—”
A rumbling sound distracted both of them and they looked around quickly. Marlo held his cannon up as Kaiden pushed himself off the wall and the entire team drew their weapons. “So they’re finally getting things started, huh?” Kaiden whispered.
“What’s that sound?” Indre asked. “It doesn’t sound like a machine.”
“Big quake sound? Got some rumbling down there?” Otto asked over the comms.
“Yeah, are you familiar with it?” the ace asked.
“You might wanna hold onto something, Mack is charging up,” he warned.
“Charging up for what?” He received his answer almost instantly. A bright flash outside the lobby’s windows heralded a cascade of light that surged toward them. The group fell back as the radiant flare shattered the entrance. Kaiden gestured wildly to Genos and Amber and they all fell prone as the thermals he had placed in front hurtled overhead. “Get down,” he ordered Marlo and Indre. She threw herself down quickly but Marlo stood firmly in place as one of the explosives detonated. The heavy was unaffected, but his left shoulder pad and gauntlet cracked slightly.
Kaiden spun toward the sound of boots racing their way. He drew Sire and charged a shot as a figure vaulted with a flash of bounce jets. Luke hurtled into the attack with his hammer raised over his head. Before the ace could fire, a large white blast rocketed from behind him and swept into the approaching titan to halt his charge. Kaiden looked at Marlo, who readied another shot with a nod of approval. The ace smiled and fired his fully charged weapon into the distance to scatter the approaching team. The effect was momentary, however, as their advance did not stop.
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 47
