Invasion (Animus Book 10)

by Joshua Anderle

  “She’s there,” Chiyo confirmed. “She’s on my network and I’ve already sent a message that we’re on the way.”

  “Do you have her position? She only gave me her commlink code,” Kaiden muttered.

  “You two seem to have a…strained relationship,” Jaxon said and unlocked the mouthpiece of his infuser to sip the juice Flynn had gotten for him.

  “What? Naw, she digs me,” the ace protested.

  “In spurts, certainly.” Chiyo giggled and stowed her tablet in the messenger bag across her chest. “She said the doors are unlocked and she’ll meet us in hall 001.”

  “Good, no stairs,” Marlo noted and rolled his shoulders. “I have to remember to stretch before we get into the pods.”

  “I stretched almost as soon as I got out of bed,” Amber stated. “I had to get the blood going, especially this early.”

  “Might I ask what training we will participate in?” Genos asked. “Or will it be a war game?”

  “I’m up for some elimination,” Cameron suggested. “Free for all or teams. We could make teams of four or go in pairs.”

  “I would suspect that is up to the head monitor,” Jaxon reminded them. “Although if we do have a vote, I would like a team competition.”

  “We are christening the Animus for the beginning of the year,” Kaiden said. “I think it would be proper that we start with some elims.”

  “Proper?” Amber asked and looked at him with a grin. “Is Flynn rubbing off on you after all this time?”

  “Aussie, not British,” Flynn reminded her and took a sip before he elbowed her. “And what are you poking fun at me for? You’re Aussie too but with no accent.”

  “I moved around too much for it to stick, really,” she admitted.

  “If we do teams, how will we decide on who goes into which one?” Marlo asked.

  Kaiden looked around. “I guess we can either divide into our normal teams and have Cam and Jax flip a coin, or we can have one of our EIs randomize it.”

  “I’ll make sure your team is ‘interesting,’” Chief promised, although the hint of mischievous implication in it was not well hidden. Given that all his options were his friends and all of them well experienced by now, he wasn’t sure how the EI would mess with him, but he also knew Chief was crafty.

  “If we do the latter, I won’t volunteer Chief,” he announced and the EI’s eye shrunk and his avatar turned red as a few members of the group chuckled.

  “Well, now I want to see how that would turn out.” Flynn chuckled as they reached the entrance to the AC. Most of them tossed their disposable cups into the trash before they went in. The building was illuminated only by glow strips and a few lights above.

  “It doesn’t look like it’s completely online yet,” Amber said before they all heard a large hum and the main lights came on. “Oh, well, never mind then.”

  “Hall 001 is open,” Marlo called and smiled as he looked inside. “And someone’s already here.”

  The group entered and looked at Akello, who waited at the main console. She turned and waved them over with a warm greeting. “Morning, guys. Are you ready to be the first students in the Animus for the year?”

  “You bet!” Kaiden nodded and glanced at the pods closest to the console as they activated and the doors slid open. “What do you have for us?”

  “I thought I’d leave that up to you guys,” she replied and brought up the mode and map options. “Everything is ready and we even have some new maps. What are you looking for?”

  The group looked at each other and most nodded as they had already agreed to their preference on their way in. “We’ll go with team elimination,” Jaxon stated. “As for the map, perhaps we should try one of the new ones?”

  “It sounds like fun!” Amber agreed. “What are the teams?”

  “Honestly, I simply want to get started already,” Kaiden admitted. “Let’s go with Flynn’s group and mine. We’ll take Jax as our fourth member.”

  “Pulling rank there?” the marksman questioned sarcastically and motioned Cameron over, and the four of them went to the pods on the left side of the console.

  “If he whines too much, we can swap after the first match,” the ace retorted and glanced at Akello. “Speaking of which, is the best of five all right?”

  She nodded as she scanned the map list. “Sure, but let’s try to make good time on this, okay? I have loadout training with the first group of initiates in a few hours.”

  “It’ll be fine, Akello,” Flynn promised as he entered his pod and grinned at Kaiden as the door closed. “It won’t take us too long to kick their asses.”

  The ace rolled his eyes as the door to his pod began to close. “You’ll come out of that pod sobbing,” he promised and darkness enveloped him momentarily before the pod lights activated. He leaned back and closed his eyes. He had become so used to the sensation of connecting to the Animus and it seemed incredible to think this would be his last year using it.

  Wolfson stood at the edges of the docks and let the early light of the sun warm him. He received a call on his comm. “Talk to me,” he ordered.

  “Sir, we seem to have odd readings from two of the relays in the hills,” one of his officers responded. “Some of the cameras seem to be malfunctioning too.”

  “Also in the hills?” he asked as he turned to look in the direction of the town across the bridge. “That’s the police’s jurisdiction. We’re only notified if it’s our students causing problems.”

  “They are requesting help with maintenance, sir,” the officer explained. “They said they had their techs look at them but they can’t find anything. Their best guess is that it might be something with the software.”

  “That’s Laurie’s boys.” Wolfson grunted, took his tablet out, and looked at his messages. There was nothing from the professor, which was odd. Laurie always took pride in his designs, no matter how insignificant. If something was wrong with any of them, he would be the first to know and send a message out, even if it was only a few words, that he would handle it.

  “I can’t make it over myself,” he stated, put the tablet away, and hurried to the R&D building. “But I’ll let Laurie know. If he hasn’t received a message about it already, something must be wrong with the connection. He would get an alarm if something was corrupted.”

  “Understood, sir. I’ll let them know,” the officer stated and signed off. As Wolfson made his way to Laurie, he glanced at the sky. His brow furrowed when he noticed, far off into the distance, something strange about the clouds—or, rather, one massive cloud that stretched across the horizon. Perhaps he was still shaking sleep off, but an ominous feeling settled over him.

  Unconsciously, he began to pick up the pace.

  Chapter Eight

  “Team elimination, best of five rounds. Map: District 99.”

  The artificial voice rattled off the details as Kaiden fell through a neon-lit tube. The lights gradually fell away until he could see through the clear lining. Below him sprawled an empty city of modern design with neon lights and swirling colors gliding through the air. It made a damn pretty sight, he had to admit. He looked to his left to locate the other members of his team. Genos, Chiyo, and Jaxon fell through tubes like his, all now dressed in their loadout gear. He looked across the map at four specks in the distance—Flynn’s team—and he could swear he could make out Cameron flipping him off in the distance. It would be fun to get him back.

  The speed of his fall began to slow as the artificial gravity kicked in. He drew Sire as the tip of his left foot made contact with the landing pad below. When his teammates alighted, they also drew their weapons and huddled together.

  “Hey, Jax.” Kaiden beckoned and shouldered his rifle. “I’ll lead this round and you take the next?”

  The Tsuna ace nodded. “Very well. Orders?”

  “Teams of two,” he stated and held two fingers up for emphasis. “You and Genos. I’m with Chi. They might stay in a group but both Flynn and Cameron like th
e whole lone wolf approach. We might catch them alone.”

  “In that case, Amber will definitely stick with Marlo,” Chiyo pointed out. “A battle-medic and heavy is a dangerous combination.”

  “Only as long as her gadgets are working,” Genos suggested and held out a nano grenade. “It’s a simple enough fix.”

  “She’ll have some kind of purge, though. And even if we take her out, Marlo will be a handful. If there’s anyone more gleefully destructive than me it’s a demolitionist,” Kaiden reasoned. “Keep a lookout and Chief?”

  “Do you have something for me?” the EI asked and materialized in the air.

  The ace gave him a thumbs-up. “Take a look around but be careful, though. I’m sure Cameron has a drone looking for us.”

  “On it.” The EI nodded and floated upward. The holographic ambient lights actually allowed the orb to blend in with the sky and hide a little better. Kaiden watched him fly off, then checked the top left of his HUD to confirm that their vision was still connected. He nodded to Jaxon and Genos who returned the gesture before both leapt off the pad, down to the ground, and hurried away to the left side of the map.

  Kaiden watched them go for a moment, then noticed a door on the other side. “Do you wanna take a stroll or—” Before he could finish, he looked back and Chiyo dove off the pad herself, flipped in the air, and landed several stories below.

  She straightened and looked at him. “Are you coming?” she asked over the comms. He simply smiled under his mask before he stepped casually off the edge and fell to the ground beside her.

  “So, who are you looking to bring into your company?” Chiyo asked as Kaiden peered around a corner. His gaze darted from his visor to Chief’s viewing feed.

  “Company?” he asked, momentarily distracted. “Oh, the merc company?”

  “Right. You said you had some people in mind,” she prodded.

  He gestured for her to move closer as they crept through the alley. “I do but don’t know if it’s even possible to get them, really. All but one of them are contracted.”

  She tilted her head. “And the one who isn’t is…”

  The ace glanced over his shoulder for a moment. “You,” he stated and returned his focus to the way ahead when they left the alley. They stood in the middle of a brightly lit street where glowing signs advertised fake restaurants and hotels above them.

  “I finally got you to say it.” She chuckled, looked at the roads, and pointed to the one in the center.

  Kaiden nodded as they continued to advance. “I guess I didn’t want to seem like I simply assumed you wanted to throw your lot in with me,” he admitted. “You’re as free as I am now and have a ton of options. Chief still reminds me that even though we’re both ‘special cases,’ you were actually invited and I was only recruited.”

  “And I told you I took the invitation to find my own path,” she replied. “You don’t think it’s possible that path could be with you?”

  “It could be, although I don’t know many people who would take the path over the cliff over the golden path.” He chuckled, caught movement in his peripheral vision, and took aim. Almost immediately, he lowered his rifle when he realized it was simply an animatronic advertisement. “That’s annoying.”

  “It might be a path that leads to a cliff, but there could be exciting things over the edge,” she countered coyly.

  Kaiden chuckled. “Isn’t that romantic.”

  Chiyo passed him and made her way into another alley. “It could be that too.”

  He stopped for a moment and smiled but his thought was interrupted by Chief. “We have a problem, partner.”

  “Did you find them?” His gaze darted to the feed.

  “No, but I wanted to let you know the sky is falling.”

  His feed revealed the truth of this, although there seemed to be no explanation for it. He pressed a switch on the side of his helmet to sharpen his view of the sky as tendrils of white spread above and the buildings around them began to fade.

  The infiltrator lowered her weapon and frowned at the disappearing buildings before she looked at him with real concern. “The Animus is shutting down.” She opened a holoscreen. “Akello, what’s going on?”

  “All of you need to get out,” the woman ordered, a worried tone in her voice. “Now!”

  “Do you think we should have gone to the AC with Cameron and the others?” Izzy asked as she set her tray down. “I thought I would sleep in, but I was so excited for the first day that I ended up waking up before my alarm even went off.”

  “I didn’t sleep much either,” Otto confessed and gestured to Julius. “Although I was working on a new program, something to help Julius make new chems and salves on the fly. All he would have to do is link up his—”

  Indre almost dropped her tablet when it began to flash red. “What? What did I do?” She recoiled as Warning flashed over the screen. The others checked their tablets and confirmed that all their alarms had been activated as well.

  “Is this a drill?” Izzy looked confused.

  “No, they wouldn’t do that on the first day,” Julius reasoned. “The initiates wouldn’t know the procedure.”

  “Then this is real?” Otto placed his tablet down. The dozens of other students in the cafeteria area looked at one another in consternation and some rushed outside. “What’s going on?”

  “Get out of the way!” Luke shouted as he, Silas, Raul, and Mack pushed their way out of the soldiers’ dorm. “Come on, people. Move!”

  The entrance hall was bottle-necked as all the remaining students in the dorm attempted to rush out at the same time. Many weren’t even properly dressed and some even wore nothing but a towel as the dorm alarm had blared in the middle of their morning shower.

  Luke and Mack were able to force a small opening for them to push through and finally made it out the doors. A large group of students stared into the sky, wide-eyed. The friends looked up as well and their heart rates increased and breath hitched when they saw something massive break through the clouds.

  Wolfson barged into Laurie’s office. The alarms in the building had activated almost as soon as he had stepped in and he now yelled orders into his comm while he searched for the professor.

  “I want all security bots activated and on patrol. Send all armored guards to the plaza and get everyone suited up. I want drones in the sky and flyers warming up.” He signed off when he saw Laurie behind his desk, staring at his monitor screen in shock, his face pale and lips pursed.

  “Laurie! What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

  The professor snapped out of his frozen shock and pressed a button on his board. A massive holoscreen appeared behind him to display the feed of a camera on the edges of the island. The security officer stopped in his tracks when a titanic ship broke through the clouds and descended toward the island. They watched in disbelief as several cannons took aim at the Academy, activated, and fired.

  Chapter Nine

  “It is now eleven o’clock in the evening and only three world council delegates arrived for today’s debate out of a total of ten. There has been no response to queries as to the other delegates whereabouts and it would appear the debate will be canceled for the evening.”

  Anne Myers, one of numerous secretaries in the world council building, tried to tune out the news playing on the monitors above while she made her way over to the general to decide on an answer to the news story. At least four delegates were supposed to represent the military and not a single one had done so. If she had to personally remind the military leader of how important these discussions were for both discourse and public perception, she would, and not happily either.

  However, what she was greeted with once she barged into his office immediately changed her anger to confusion and finally, fear. When the door slid open, a smell of mold and curdled milk almost made her gag. She staggered back and blocked her nose when she noticed a white liquid dripping from the general’s chair. His hat and clothes slid off,
coated by the mysterious liquid as well a mixture of blood, hair, and yellow pus.

  Her eyes widened and she spun to race out to the lobby and find the nearest guard. Fortunately for her, one was coming up the hall as she began her sprint. She almost fell over herself as she slid to a stop and pointed behind her. “The general—something happened…he disintegrated…” She babbled in her effort to formulate a coherent sentence and continued to point frantically behind her as she looked at the guard. To her horror, small pockets formed on his cheeks.

  “It was time,” he said in a monotone, and the same rancid smell from the general’s office flowed out of his mouth as he spoke. Anne recoiled from the guard, who simply raised his rifle and fired at her.

  “Ma’am, I have another call!” one of the security officers yelled. “Another lobbyist has turned to mush in the middle of the conference hall.”

  The co-chief of security bit her lip. This latest report made almost twenty calls, all identical. Delegates, lobbyists, and military personnel all suddenly dissolved into liquid matter. No one recalled them yelling in pain or surprise and in fact, in a couple of cases, it was reported that limbs had fallen immediately before their deaths. What the hell was going on?

  “Could this be some kind of nano attack?” she asked no one in particular, but she did get a response from above.

  “I can promise that it wasn’t me.” She looked at a man who smiled at her from where he held himself on the ceiling with adhesive grips, his expression amused. Instinctively, she reached for her gun, but with a snap of his fingers, her head erupted. The other officers tried to draw their weapons quickly, but with another snap, more than a dozen men and women lost their lives in small but bright flashes.

  Dario dropped from the ceiling and retrieved two tablets as he walked over to one of the consoles. He plugged one of these in and let it boot up while he scrolled through the other.