The doctor’s face paled and an expression of panic set in. “Your mother—Dr. Soni—she’s barricaded with the remaining personnel and injured in the ICU. The droids couldn’t get through the barriers, but I saw some headed toward the maintenance room. The ICU becomes a makeshift bunker during a lockdown, but to do that, they have to lock and shield the vents and rely on an oxygen supply. If the droids gain access to the interior systems of the medbay, they could suffocate them.”
The group prepared to leave quickly. “Which way?” Flynn cried as Amber spun toward the door.
“Down the hall and to the right. I’ll take point!” she stated.
“Wait!” Abar shouted before the group left the room and threw the device to her. “I’ll find a way out on my own. If you can make use of that, please do.”
She nodded and slid it into a pouch at her belt. “Thank you and be careful, Doctor,” she replied as the three ran out to save Dr. Soni, the staff, and the patients from the waiting horde.
Chapter Seventeen
Kaiden, his team, and around twenty students armed from the gym barreled out of the doors and fired wildly at the droids that attempted to gain access. Some began to yell with excitement as they finally took the fight to their attackers but several loud bangs behind them interrupted the impromptu war cries. Many turned as droids dropped into the gym from above, having broken in from the roof.
“Shit, get back there,” the ace shouted at some of the other students as he continued to fire, keeping the droids at bay. Several of the group broke off the retaliatory offensive to help the students still taking shelter inside.
“Kaiden, the sky is clearing,” Chiyo stated calmly as she vented her sub-machine gun and switched it with her pistol. “The pods are slowing down.”
His gaze darted up for a few seconds and it seemed that she was right. The number of containers filled with mechanical death had significantly decreased and he only noticed a few more making landfall. When he looked at the large group of droids ranged against them like a living-dead horde and the dozens of containers he could see scattered across the island, however, he knew better than to be too hopeful.
“Watch ou—ah!” a student cried when their chest was struck with an electrified spike that threw them into spasms as they fell. Kaiden whipped around and shot the droid that had fired the shot as two other students helped pull the wounded one inside the gym.
That was when he realized that they weren’t firing their cannons, lasers, or kinetic rounds at them. In fact, they weren’t even armed with blades. The droids were firing non-lethal objects—shock pins like the one that wounded the soldier, net grenades, and trap barriers. A Tsuna soldier nearby struggled on the ground as a metal bola-like device had caught her by the legs. He ran over, drew the heat blade, and activated it to help the Tsuna, who fought to free herself. “Sorry, all I have is a heat blade,” he stated, knelt quickly, and sliced into the wires.
“I’ll take the damaged skin over being a hostage,” she replied and forced her legs apart as he finished severing the metal. The Tsuna stood and looked across the plaza. “They broke my rifle, I’m sorry.”
The ace shook his head and handed her his spare pistol. “Don’t worry about it. You need to help the others in the gym.”
She took the gun and nodded. “Understood. Where will you go?”
“We’ll head to the security facility.” The two moved to the entrance and he could see his group beginning to break away. “We’re trying to get more weapons and unlock the emergency tunnels. If you can, see if you can head to the acquisitions department. They will have some weapons there as well—assuming it hasn’t already been raided by now.”
“We’ll keep it in mind,” she promised, turned, and fired at a retreating droid. “Thank you for giving us a fighting chance. Now go!”
He nodded, jogged past his team, and tapped them on the way to signal that it was time for them to move in earnest.
“Professor, we have the mainframe online but we cannot activate the connection without fixing the power issue,” one of the more than a dozen technicians in the lab exclaimed. Laurie looked at the alpha EI relay—a copy, actually, based on his father’s design. It would allow him to find any EI in the world assuming he had its ID number. Or, in this case, with a little tinkering, allow him to access the onboard EI of the ship above the Academy and shut that damn thing down.
Ominous sounds of destruction below drew closer as the arbiter droids made their way deeper into the facility. They were running short of time. He didn’t know if these mechanicals were there to take them prisoner or kill them, and he didn’t have the time to consider which might potentially be worse right now.
“Jonas, Kaley, position the remaining droids and drones at the ready,” he ordered and walked up to the central monitor on the relay. “Gustav, shut the power down in all nonessential facilities, including the experimentation wing and my personal office. I guess I’ll simply have to hope this madness is over in time for my wine to still be properly chilled.”
Gustav nodded. “Understood, sir, but we’ll still need more. There’s trouble with the relay already as it is since we modified it. Combining that with the interference we need to—”
“Get that damn thing destroyed!” Laurie yelled and pounded a fist against the console. “My apologies. It is a tense situation. The biggest energy draw is the emergency defense system and we certainly cannot shut that down. Prepare to activate the supplementary core cooling system and overclock it.”
The technician hesitated but he knew that would be the only way to get the surplus of power they needed in those particular circumstances. “Right, sir.”
“We need to discover where that damn device is!” Laurie growled his frustration. “It has to be on the island somewhere—perhaps made its way here with the bots. But I don’t know how we’ll find it without some kind of radar.”
“Gah!” Kaiden shouted as his head began to pound. He came to a sudden stop and almost toppled but was able to stumble behind the walls of the technician’s workshop building before he fell to his knees with his hands around his head.
“Kaiden! What’s wrong?” Genos asked, looked away from the fighting for a moment, and came to his friend’s aid.
“My head feels like it’s melting.” He grunted and clenched his teeth. “Shit, not again. I’m not even in the Animus.”
“I recognize this feeling,” Chief stated, and his voice shifted between clear and fuzzy. “Back at Ramses—that emitter they used on us.”
He winced as he forced himself up. “Didn’t we stop them from taking it?”
“The device, but that assassin ran off with that little drive, which probably had the schematics,” the EI recalled. “We ran into her later working for that Dario fella. Ten gets you twenty that she delivered it to the AO.”
The ace frowned and vented his rifle. That would explain all the bizarre problems the tech was experiencing and the sudden fluctuations in power. “Can you take us to it, Chief?”
“Partner, it’s taking everything I have to make sure we don’t fall apart,” he responded.
Kaiden looked at the mechanist. “Hey, Genos, do you have any engineer’s device on you that can track weird energy signals?”
The Tsuna holstered his hand cannon and took a rectangular device from his pocket. “I have a tri-tool. To be honest, it is only meant to track specific energy readings to help in repairs, but I have modified it. We all have really—”
“Chief, can you at least send him a readout?” he interrupted and the EI nodded and vanished from the HUD.
Genos looked at the monitor of his tool and eyes widened. “Some kind of pulse is creating waves of electric energy and gathering power.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Kaiden muttered.
The Tsuna shook his head. “It is not. Once it reaches its apex, it will shut down all devices on the island and keep them off even if we destroy it.”
Pain continued to wash over his mind, but he
dragged in a breath and grasped his rifle tightly. “Which way?”
“To the northeast near the docks.” Genos passed him the device.
He nodded. “Guys, follow me!” he shouted to the team. “We have a new target.”
Jaxon, Chiyo, and Cameron broke away from the fighting. “Are we not going to the security facility anymore?” the bounty hunter questioned and vented his machine gun.
The ace shook his head. “We’ll get there, but we discovered what’s causing all of the problems with the tech.” As if to prove his point, a group of security bots ran across the plaza a few dozen yards away before they suddenly shut down and fell into one another.
Jaxon looked from the bots to Kaiden. “Where do we need to go?”
“The docks. Genos’ tri-tool is tracking it.” He held the device up for Jaxon and the others to see.
Chiyo studied the reading quickly. “If we destroy that, all the automated security systems should come online at once. I’m not sure it will be enough to turn this around but it will give everyone remaining a chance to escape.”
He nodded but didn’t speak as his head continued to throb. Escape? He had begun to realize that maybe that was what they should focus on right now. He wanted to fight until they could push these invaders away, but as he looked into the sky at the massive ship overhead, he wondered if—even if they did escape the island—they could escape that thing.
Chapter Eighteen
Sasha took a position at the top of the administration building and aimed his rifle carefully at the enemy forces below. His heart raced as he saw droids throw students and faculty into the crashed pods and seal them inside with shielding.
He placed his fingers against his comm to activate it. “Wolfson…Wolfson, where are you?”
“I’ve made it into the security facility,” his friend responded and swung the edge of his ax into the side of a droid’s torso. “I’m heading to the central chamber. I’ll get those tunnels open, Sasha.”
“Wolfson, they’re imprisoning the students,” the commander informed him and shifted his aim to the terminal that powered the shielding around the pods. He hesitated and scanned the scene again. The tunnels still weren’t open and when he looked at the main gate of the Academy, it was clearly under the enemy’s control as dozens of droids stood guard. Some occasionally left the group to pursue students who ran too close to them in search of a way to escape.
He looked at the pod again. Technically, they were safest in there until they could get the tunnels open. If he shorted the terminal and let them escape, would they simply be captured again? Would the bots even bother to leave them alive? The commander cursed quietly. “Wolfson, if you need any kind of clearance or code, let me know and I’ll get them to you.”
“Do you have Durand with ya?” Wolfson asked and snapped the vent shut on his shotgun.
“I…am the chancellor now,” he replied calmly.
The line was quiet for a moment, although he could hear the other man swallow loudly in the mic. “I understand. I’ll keep you informed, Sasha. For now, keep yourself safe. I don’t know the line of succession but if I’m next, I don’t want it.”
“Nor did I, my friend.” He sighed, adjusted his aim to target a droid below once again, and fired, then followed with several more shots in quick succession. Eight droids were felled in less than six seconds, but the other mechanicals certainly noticed and turned toward the tower. “I won’t simply hide but I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t have to worry.” He withdrew from his vantage point but took a moment to look into the sky. Two dropships now headed to the island. “Damn it all, Wolfson. We have more incoming!”
“Droids? I’m sick of them already!” The head officer growled annoyance.
“Dropships instead of pods this time,” Sasha informed him, crouched behind another window, and watched the ships land. “We have to move faster, Wolfson. We may have a new problem to deal with.” The first vessel hovered over the central plaza and the back ramp opened. A group of soldiers in dark-gray armor and armed with rifles and machine guns leapt from the ship. “But we may also have a chance to spill enemy blood now.”
A dozen droids stood waiting outside the ICU of the Nexus’ medbay and stared at the barrier that kept them out. Once the others finished their sabotage mission, they would have their way in—or the humans would perish due to their own lack of oxygen.
A small orb rolled beside them. Some looked at it, then back to the shield. They would continue to wait. Gunfire traced the group and all fell after several seconds but didn’t react at all. Amber, Flynn, and Marlo ran up. The marksman retrieved the orb as they reached the barrier. “We gotta keep this thing. It’s damn handy.”
“I hope it has enough juice left,” Marlo muttered. “There are hundreds of droids left to deal with.”
Amber pulled her tablet out to try to contact her mother to let her know the front was clear, but the device wouldn’t activate. “The malfunctions are getting worse.” She sighed and banged on the shield. “Doctor Tera Soni! Mom, it’s me! Can you hear me?”
“It won’t work Amber,” Flynn said and placed a hand on her shoulder while Marlo kept watch. “Sound doesn’t travel through shields like this.”
“Then how do we get their attention?” she asked.
The demolisher tilted his head and gestured at the ceiling with his gun. “Do you think they can see us through this camera?”
His teammates turned their attention to a small, spherical camera overlooking them. Amber walked up to it. “I don’t think it’s on but it’s not damaged.”
“It’s not likely to simply shut off in an emergency,” Flynn reasoned. “Do you think it was deactivated remotely?”
“If it was, it would have been turned off by someone in the administration wing with—shit!” The medic took her sub-machine gun out and raced through the hall. Marlo and Flynn almost tripped over each other to try to catch up.
“They are already there,” she shouted over her shoulder as the other two increased their pace. “The droids have control now—the oxygen.”
The marksman rushed ahead and nodded briskly as he came up beside her. “We’ll save them, Amber. Lead the way.”
She nodded and they sprinted to the west side of the medbay and the administration section. While they encountered no droids yet, they began to find certain sections cut off by sealed doors. She was able to redirect them, but her teammates could tell that every delay was getting to her.
Amber pointed at a doorway, this one locked but unsealed. Marlo rushed up and broke it in with two mighty kicks. The door jerked from its hinges and collided with a droid that stood behind it. The mechanical’s partners turned to fire at the team. Flynn and Amber ran up behind Marlo and fired at the enemy while the demolisher drove the butt of his gun against the head of the recovering droid in front of him.
Even with their suppressive fire, something pierced his shoulder and he roared in pain when electricity coursed through him. Amber and Flynn cried out in concern, but the heavy simply gritted his teeth and yanked the spike out. He scowled and looked around to find the droid that had fired it, only to see two of them preparing their next attacks.
In a moment of either instinct or blind rage, he charged the two mechanicals instead of falling back and bulldozed his large body into them. Amber came up and fired at one while he swung his gun repeatedly into the head of the other.
“Hey, hey. I’m damn sure it’s down, mate,” Flynn said and tried to pull Marlo up from the ground and snap him out of his rage.
It seemed to work. The demolisher took a few long, deep breaths as his teammate helped him to his feet. He glared at the head of the droid, now full of indentions and cracks across the lining, and rubbed the area where he had been shot. “That hurt like hell, man.”
“I’m surprised it didn’t do real damage.” Flynn chuckled and patted him on the chest. “I’m very sure that could have felled a rhino.”
Marlo shook his head, his forehead
still creased with a trace of anger, but he flashed a smile. “They should have tripled the wattage if they wanted me to lay down.” He looked at Amber. “Sorry about that. Where to now?”
She stood and looked at the other end of the hall and the rooms around them. “It looks like we’re in the middle of the administration offices. We either need to find the security station or go below to the maintenance room.”
“My guess is that the bots are in the security station. That’s where they can hook themselves up to the console and get remote access, right?” the demolisher asked.
“Right, but that’s why we should head to the maintenance room,” she countered and checked her weapon. “Even if we wipe them out, we don’t know if we can take control right now. Whatever is affecting our tech doesn’t seem to affect them. Maybe if we destroy them all, the system will simply shut down or lock us out.”
“And it’ll be different in the maintenance room?” Flynn asked.
“That’s where one of the oxygen tanks is,” she stated and began to move again. “We can unlock that and manually direct it to the ICU, then we’ll take care of the droids.”
“We’ll save your mom and the others first,” Marlo summarized and vented his shotgun. “Then we’ll get to the fun part.”
“It’s clear,” Silas called and motioned for the others to follow him out of the engineer’s workshop building. The group of students—all wielding modified engineering tools or devices as weapons—made their way out. The battle raged on as students, faculty, and security guards continued to fight the wave of bots. Raul noticed something in the air to his left.
“A dropship,” he told the others and pointed at the vessel as it flew away.
Luke watched it leave before he looked in the direction from which it had come. “What did it drop?”
“Look!” One of the engineering students pointed at a trio of armed soldiers wearing gray armor with a white insignia on the chest.
Invasion (Animus Book 10) Page 9
