“I’m on it,” he affirmed. Another dull ache throbbed in his head but he shook it off and pushed forward. The sooner they were rid of this thing, the better they would all be.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Is there anything you can give us before we head in, Chief?” Kaiden asked as he, Haldt, and the rest of the team approached the location of the disruptor.
“H-honestly, I’m only tryin’ to…k-k-ke-eep it together,” the EI admitted. “Detecting…e-en-nergy readings i-inside. There are droids…ob-obviously.”
“Obviously,” Kaiden repeated, checked his gun, and wiped his brow. When a hand settled on his shoulder, he looked behind him at Chiyo, whose face displayed real concern. He gave her a swift nod and assured her silently that he would be fine. He would be even better when they were through, of course.
“My g-g-guess is…ex-expect heavy resi-s-stance.” Chief’s stuttering seemed worse.
“No other signals?” Kaiden inquired.
“No. C-counting the ones we’ve d-d-de-ealt with so f-far, though, I-I read a c-couple of high-higher output e-e-energy readings that c-c-could mean ma-m-malfunctioning droids or different m-models.”
The ace frowned and glanced at Haldt, who was on the other side of the doors. The officer held his weapon up and nodded and he returned the gesture.
“Be on your guard. We don’t wanna deal with any more surprises today,” the security officer ordered.
“We might actually have one. My EI is saying there are potentially a couple of bigger bots in there,” he warned.
The man nodded. “Mine said the same thing. I’m sure there are more than only a couple in there, given how critical this thing is to disrupting our equipment. It’ll be heavily guarded.”
“It’s not a big deal. We only gotta blow this thing up,” Cameron interjected. “Back at Ramses, we had to keep it intact. This’ll be way easier.”
“Do you know what this thing is?” one of the officers asked.
Kaiden shrugged. “We have a general idea. It gives me the same feeling that another device did on a previous gig.”
“I don’t feel anything,” Eckles commented.
He sighed and shook his head. “That’s a long story so let’s wrap this up. I’d like to destroy this device sooner rather than later.”
“I might be able to disassemble it for later uses, perhaps,” Genos suggested and checked his belt. “I think I was able to grab—”
“Too late, I have dibs!” Kaiden, assisted by Haldt, kicked the door and a loud clang echoed in the warehouse as it fell. The two entered with their weapons ready but there was no need for any kind of search. Directly ahead in the center of the room stood a pyramid-like device guarded by heavy shielding, but tears were visible in the barrier. He assumed it must be succumbing to the device’s own effect. Two droids immediately stepped in front of their target. Larger than the other Arbiter bots, they boasted heavier armor and sharp blue eyes that stared at the group. Each had a cannon for an arm with the second arm free, although one of them drew it back and cast it forward and a long blade emerged from the top.
“It looks like those are the bigger energy readings,” Haldt muttered. He scowled at the glowing lights above as several other droids stalked across the frames and suspended walkways.
“Target located, Kaiden Jericho,” the blade-wielding bot stated and stepped forward.
“Who did you piss off?” Eckles asked as he and two other guards moved to the front.
“Oh, too many people,” Kaiden admitted. “It’s kind of nice to be known, really.”
“Are you gonna blush?” Cameron asked.
“K-Kaiden…above y-you,” Chief shouted.
He jumped to the side instinctually as a droid fell and its blades dug into the floor. Jaxon shot it before it could tear itself free and the group scattered as the enemy began to fire.
Beams, spikes, darts, and kinetic rounds erupted from all sides. One of the guards tossed a shield emitter to Genos, who caught and activated it, then thrust it into the ground as a dome formed around the team. Kaiden, however, broke out when he saw that the larger droids were far more interested in him than anyone else. He unhooked a thermal from his belt. There was no impetus to spare the device this time, and the fact that the droids seemed to be charging their cannons meant they didn’t seem interested in keeping him alive like the others.
When he activated the grenade and threw it at them, however, one of them fired at it. The grenade was caught in a purple energy field and exploded but didn’t damage the barrier. It was some kind of containment field, so he had to assume that they did want him alive. That gave him even more reason to destroy them.
Jaxon ran out of the safety of the shield armed with a shock grenade. He tossed it so that it skipped along the ground and beneath the droid’s positions. It detonated and electricity engulfed the mechanicals, but they seemed undamaged. The electricity faded and hadn’t even been able to successfully damage the disruptor.
They must have had conduction mods, but the Tsuna ace couldn’t think about that for long as one of the bots turned and fired at him. He fell prone and the shot rocketed overhead and amusingly, caught one of the other Arbiter bots in the containment field behind him. Jaxon flipped over and fired, but his blasts bounced off the droids’ shielding. They would need something with more power.
“Firing ballistic rounds,” Kara shouted as she and Eckles raced out from behind the shield and fired several rounds apiece at the enemy. The ballistics struck the shields, exploded, and finally forced the droids back. Jaxon pushed to his feet and focused his attention on eliminating the remaining mechanicals. He finally felt a sense of accomplishment after he’d dealt with what seemed like an unending horde of them. Relieved, he realized that there was only a handful left in there, although they had to hurry before more arrived.
“Lethal force required. Changing to beam.” A whir and hiss issued from the droids. Kaiden destroyed an Arbiter bot and turned to look at the larger mechanicals and his eyes widened. “Get down!” he bellowed.
The guards scattered as the enemy fired. Powerful beams streaked from their cannons and battered their shield. The power of the two together shattered it almost instantly and they surged forward to attack the guards. One security officer was able to avoid them but an Arbiter bot took the opportunity to fall from the roof above. It impacted with the man’s chest, drew an arm back, and hammered a metal fist into his helmet. Blood coated its hand when it removed it.
The droids ceased their fire and several vents opened on their cannons. The second droid drew its blade as well and they both began to stalk their prey. The ace found a moment of peace behind a pillar and checked his remaining thermals. He had five left and wondered if he should simply charge them all and detonate them near the disruptor. The shield, however, was still in place.
“Chief, how sturdy is that shield?” he asked.
“Losing stability rapidly… Emitter…almost finished charging,” the EI responded and his voice cut in and out. Kaiden could feel the stress in his mind, but he kept it at bay. They had to hurry and end this, but he couldn’t risk losing all his thermals if they would simply be nullified by the shield. He needed to have that shield broken or drained. “Genos!”
“Yes, Kaiden?” the Tsuna called to him as he continued to fire at the approaching droids and dodged another spike.
“Your nanos—throw them!” he ordered.
“Where? At the droids?” Genos asked.
“At the device—all of them. Do it!” he yelled, held the trigger on the thermal container down, and sprinted forward.
His teammate retrieved the three nano grenades he had. He was worried that with the disruptions, they would not prove very useful, but if Kaiden needed them, he would use them. He backed away and inched closer to the device as he saw the vents shut on the droids’ cannons. Quickly, he activated the three grenades and lobbed them toward the disruptor. One of the droids saw them and turned to fire but was interrupted b
y Kara’s ballistic shots from across the warehouse. The mechanical snapped to face her position and fired. She cried out in pain at the same moment that the nanos exploded out of their container.
Ripples traced along the shielding almost as soon as the grenades detonated. Nanos were attracted to the closest source of energy when they didn’t have a directive. While he didn’t like to simply hope things would work out considering the circumstances, this was the best option if it worked correctly. It looked like it did as what remained of the shield began to thin and disintegrate. But the device itself began to glow brighter. He could almost see the energy pulse off it as it prepared to erupt. Hastily, he removed his finger from the thermal container’s trigger and hurled it at the base of the device. It knocked against the side before it exploded. A massive blast rocked the warehouse. He and others were hurled into the walls or pillars by the force of it.
Kaiden, far more used to this than he ought to be, was able to recover fairly quickly and held his rifle at the ready. “Chief, are you good?” he asked and almost felt lighter in some way.
“Attention. Nexus Academy is under attack. Defensive systems are activating. All students should make their way…”
“That’s the security alert!” Cameron shouted, relief evident in his voice although he was quickly reminded of the immediate threat when he heard the hum of a droid’s cannon. He turned to the glow of the weapon and the robot’s eyes amongst the dust and smoke. Before he could respond, several explosions behind the enemy’s back toppled it. Haldt stood calmly and added more ballistic rounds to his weapon.
“We still have more droids to deal with,” he stated and gestured to where the other big mechanical shook off the debris that had fallen on it from the explosion. Kaiden fired at it, as did Jaxon and Chiyo. One by one, all the remaining soldiers targeted it in a concerted barrage that destroyed first its shields and then it before it could fire. Unfortunately, they did not finish it before it could retaliate.
When the droid fell, it began to glow and Chief showed Kaiden a reading that its temperature was rising rapidly. “It’s going to blow!”
“Everyone, get moving!” Haldt ordered and the group sprinted out of the warehouse and away from the droid attempt to destroy the team.
Once outside, they were able to see turrets come online and the defensive barriers activate all along the island. The ace felt a sense of excitement and hope now. But when he looked into the sky, it was dashed almost as quickly by the sight of the titanic ship above charging its main cannon, which was aimed at the center of the island.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Professor! It’s working.”
“What is?” Laurie had his answer before the technician could respond. When his personal interface reappeared and his console booted up, he wasted no time. “Get the defense array online immediately and all the hatches open if Wolfson has not done so already. Bring the network up and contact every student and faculty member you can. We need to get them to safety.”
“Right away, sir.”
The professor opened a holoscreen. “Cyra, are you there?”
“I am. It’s good to hear from you, Professor!” she responded, her smile wide despite the fatigue in her eyes. “Were you able to locate the source of the disruptions?”
“Actually, no. We’ve worked on it but all our—”
“Laurie! I’m finally able to get through to ya,” Wolfson said cheerfully as he appeared on another screen. “Everything is back online. The tunnels should open now and the security bots are reactivating. Good work!”
“It wasn’t me, Wolfson,” he admitted. “I’ve been blind since the start of this. We weren’t able to get a lock on whatever caused the problem.”
“Really? Then who— Hold a moment Laurie.” The head officer looked to the side. “Yes, Haldt? Were you able to— Eh? Took care of the disruption? Where was— Kaiden!”
“Kaiden?” Laurie would have laughed if it weren’t for the chaos surrounding him at the moment. Even when he had no idea what he was doing, the ace always seemed to find a way to be useful.
“The ship’s cannon is coming online!” That caught his attention instantly. He looked at a camera feed from the main plaza and craned it up at a definitive glow in the ship’s cannon.
“Sir, from what we’re able to discern about the ship’s model, that cannon is currently at thirty percent of a charge,” one of the technicians explained hastily.
“We have control again. Everything is working and we will execute the plan,” he stated. “Prepare the array and target the ship.”
“Right away.” A trio of technicians rushed over to the array to help the others already working on it.
“Some of the systems are still rebooting. We’ll have it ready in approximately three minutes, Professor.”
Laurie nodded and took a position at the main console as Cyra’s monitor appeared next to him and Wolfson signed off. “When we’re in, we’ll have access to the ship’s EI. We’ll cut the power to everything but the main engine. If they do not surrender, we’ll threaten to send them into the ocean and overheat the core.”
She looked at him in surprise “A blast like that, Professor—I mean, the ship is massive!”
“I said threaten, Cyra. There’s no need to actually do so,” he pointed out. “It would be a waste. How are you holding up down there?”
“Much better now that all the defenses are activating,” she stated. “We had to be selective on what we powered up and had people running spare generators and using older model power cores for the bots. Everything is working as intended now.”
“Very good. Keep it up. We’ve weathered the storm now.” He wanted to believe his words more than he did, but he couldn’t shake a feeling of foreboding that overtook him and decided he shouldn’t get cocky. “We’ll end this soon.”
“The array is ready, sir. We’re connecting it to the enemy ship’s EI,” Gustav reported. The professor watched intently as the connection was established. It didn’t matter what kind of security defended the EI. The array would connect to it directly and focus on the code that either his father or Laurie himself had created.
Their opponents either knew this or expected they would find a workaround. Once the connection was established, he was greeted by a stream of constantly changing code that included orders and directions that couldn’t possibly be followed by a ship’s EI rapidly appear and disappear from view.
“What’s going on?” one of the techs asked. “Is something wrong with the connection? The system?”
Laurie bit his lip in frustration. “No, nothing of the sort,” he snapped. “They’ve cracked the EI—several EIs—and created redundant ones that are issued junk orders or commands. They are cycled through every few seconds. Only one is given the real commands at any moment.” He let his head hang as he slumped against the console and laughed. “Honestly, I’ve heard of hackers doing something similar to defend their own consoles or systems but nothing on a scale this large. Ship EIs are incredibly complex on their own and there are significant risks if you make this your defense.”
“Can we… Can you do anything about it, sir?” Gustav asked.
The professor dragged in a deep breath as he examined the console once again. “It’s changing too fast…the cycling… I can’t keep up with it enough to even form a plan. By the time I issue a command, the main EI will have switched.”
“I can take over, Professor,” Aurora suggested, her voice soothing.
He took his EI pad out and placed it against the console. “Even with the quick cycling, Aurora has sufficient power and will be able to comb through the junk code quite easily.” Still, he hesitated. If they discovered her inside their systems, they would have time to purge her, but she should be able to escape even quicker than they could catch her. Finally, he nodded, took a cord from the EI pad, and connected it to the console. “Be quick, Aurora. Simply disable the ship and freeze the cycling for easier control, understand?”
“Of course, Professor.” Laurie uploaded her into the relay and granted her control of the machine as he stepped away. He watched the constantly changing figures on the screen begin to slow and some of the lights on the ship began to flicker and disappear. She was getting in.
But it was the cannon that he and the others focused on. He glanced at the report—sixty-seven percent and rising. He’d received no alerts yet so Aurora was still in the clear for now.
The monitor froze and the code locked in place. His gaze darted between the monitor, the readouts, and the feed to the ship. Tentatively, he walked forward and whispered. “Aurora?” He almost held his breath while he waited for an answer
There was no reply, although the figures on the screen began to change once more. Laurie stepped back and focused on the readouts. Sixty-seven percent still…sixty-six…it was falling!
The professor looked at the feed as the ship began to darken and the technicians began to smile, checked their monitors, and looked for changes. “The enemy droids are still moving, sir, but the energy readings from the ship are dropping sharply.”
“I apologize for being so quiet, Professor,” Aurora said and appeared onscreen once again. “It was more of an effort to freeze the cycling than I had anticipated.”
He felt relief and placed his hand on the monitor. “It’s all right, Aurora. You’ve done well. Do we have control of the ship?”
“I will have control in app…appro…stand-by…issu…” Her avatar flickered, faded, and suddenly vanished. The monitor of the array brightened before it powered down and there was nothing but silence.
“Aurora!” he yelled and checked the pad. He had no signal.
“Professor, we’re being hailed, by the ship,” Gustav informed him.
The professor turned to look at the main screen, which displayed a man with slicked-back gray hair and sharp, dark eyes that bored into him in open scrutiny. “So, Professor Laurie, I wonder if you will be more civil than your chancellor was.”
Invasion (Animus Book 10) Page 11
