The first grenade skipped toward the group. The three ark soldiers obviously dodged it when two broke left while the other moved to the right. They didn’t, however, see him throw the second one at the ceiling. It ricocheted down behind the two soldiers who had gone to the left, erupted, and electric arcs enveloped the two as their own shields absorbed the brunt of the shock. The attack had distracted them, which allowed the commander time to take aim.
He fired a shot through the helm of the other sniper. When he heard a gun priming to his side, he fell prone and drew his pistol in his other hand as the third soldier fired at him with a machine gun. Sasha aimed his pistol and fired. His adversary tried to correct his aim to fire upon the prone marksman, but in six rapid shots, he was down.
The commander scrambled to his feet and stalked toward the remaining soldier, whom he grabbed by the throat. He pressed his pistol against his head as he had with the scout earlier. “Are there more?” he demanded and received only a gurgled reply. “Why do you want the Master EI and codex?”
The soldier merely rolled his head back but his hand inched toward his pistol. Sasha sighed and fired and the body slumped when he released it. He had to give them this, at least. They were dedicated to their cause—or possibly simply afraid of the consequences of failure more than death.
“Sasha, I’m ready to go,” Akello announced over the comms. “Is it clear to come out?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve eliminated four invaders but I’m sure more are on their way or are in other areas of the center,” he stated and put his rifle away. “I’ll see if I can get us an extraction.”
“Sir, I pick up more than fifty signatures heading in our direction,” Isaac informed him and displayed a map with numerous red dots converging on the Animus Center.
“Akello, get to me. We’re moving now!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Hey, watch it,” one of the pilots yelled over the comms.
Chiyo looked at the various camera feeds and tried to identify what had alarmed him. “What’s the problem?”
“There’s a dropship coming into the hangar. My readout says it belongs to the head officer of security.”
“Wolfson’s ship?” she asked and turned as the vessel sailed in and set down as the last four shuttles prepared to launch. She put her headset down and ran to it. The side door opened and Kaiden and a few security guards emerged before it had fully landed.
“Hey, Chi, how’s it going?” he asked and scanned the once filled section quickly. “Most of the ships are out. Is Haldt back yet?”
“He went back to find any other pilots he could, but he should be on his way,” she replied.
“Which way will he come from?” a guard asked and they ran to the east entrance tunnel once she gave them the direction.
“We’re heading out soon. I came back to get you out as well,” the ace stated and gestured to the ship. Luke stepped into the doorway.
“Hey, Chiyo!” he said with a wave. “It’s still a little cramped in here but come on. It’s gotta be better than staying here.”
“You were able to find some of them?” she asked.
He nodded and held four fingers up. “Luke, Silas, Mack, and Raul, although he’s still out of it. We found some engineers as well, a fairly decent pick-up for a quick run.”
“Shit!” the guard at the central console yelled and thumped her fist into the device. “We lost another cannon.”
“That makes three.” The infiltrator sighed. “We won’t have support for much longer.”
“Do things still look bad out there?” Kaiden asked.
She nodded and rubbed a hand up her left arm. “Of course, but we didn’t expect to turn this around anyway. The cannons allowed us to take out large swathes of droids and deal with the mechs easier, but they’re systematically destroying them. The droids seem endless and the soldiers walking the grounds now seem to direct them as well to focus their attacks.”
“Silas told me Raul said they had an insignia for the Russian Ark Academy,” he informed her. “I don’t know what the deal is, but I assume we’re not the only Ark Academy involved in this fight.”
“Hey, boyo!” Wolfson yelled. “We need to get moving. I have a distress call.”
“From who?” the ace asked, his eyes narrowed.
“Sasha,” Wolfson answered. “Our new chancellor is locked in the Animus Center.”
“New chancellor?” Chiyo asked.
Kaiden shrugged. “He’s the new chancellor? Wait, does that mean Durand is dead?”
The head officer’s only reply was a beleaguered sigh, although it was enough of an answer for them to understand. “Dammit,” the ace muttered. “Let’s not lose another.”
“Agreed. Get in here!” the giant bellowed as the ship primed once again.
He clambered into the side entrance and looked at the engineers. “You guys should wait for the other pilots. They’ll take you out of here. We still have things to finish.”
They nodded and disembarked as Kaiden took hold of the railing and looked at Chiyo. “Come on, Chi. We’re heading out.”
The infiltrator glanced at the officer at the console, who nodded and gave her a thumbs-up. She waved to her in thanks and scrambled aboard. The door shut as Wolfson turned the vessel toward the hangar’s exit.
The ace made his way back to the cockpit. “So, how’s he doing?”
“I don’t know. It’s a generic emergency signal and I can’t make contact with him,” Wolfson revealed. “He probably has his comms off for now, or at least has no long-range.”
Kaiden stared at the screen that displayed a map of the academy and his eyes bulged at the number of hostiles either around the AC or headed toward it. “Good God. What the hell did he do?”
“Either they really want the place destroyed or they want something inside it. I would guess the latter since they don’t seem to be firing at it. Many of them are simply standing outside the perimeter like they are trying to stop anyone from getting out or in.” The head officer took his tablet out, placed it on the console, and pressed a few keys. “I’m ordering any nearby security bots to head that way. I’ll need you to take over once we punch through and drop me on the roof.”
“You’re going in?” he asked and strapped himself in.
“That’s my plan. I might get lucky and Sasha’s already waiting for us, but those bots like to climb things and are annoyingly good at it too. He’s probably hiding inside and I need to go in and get him.”
“I should come down with you,” he offered.
Wolfson waved him off. “You need to fly my ship. You’re the only one besides Sasha I trust with it. Besides, who do you think will distract the bots outside?”
Kaiden nodded although he folded his arms as he thought it over. “Does that make me support or bait?”
“Two times out of three, support is merely a nice way to say bait.” The giant chuckled but sobered when he caught sight of one of the cannons outside the window. “Hey, I have an idea. Get Chiyo in here.”
The Arbiter bots advanced resolutely on the building. They had their directives—retrieve the codex and Master EI, eliminate all targets, and attempt to subdue potential recruits, but the items took priority. But as the first group of droids reached the door, they were engulfed in a bright flash and several of them were obliterated, with several more blown back in various conditions of damage.
The many other droids behind or around them focused on another orb that careened toward them to blast yet another group of them. Several linked together to create a stronger shield to protect the regiment, although they paid no attention to what was happening behind them. A sensor warned of a new arrival seconds before they were shot to dust by explosive rounds. Wolfson’s ship flew overhead while cannon seven, clear across the island but with a clean line of sight to the outside of the Animus center, continued to fire as soon as a new shot was charged.
Kaiden pulled the ship up to the roof and fired at any bots that cl
imbed the side of the building. Chief worked the shield and maximized the front while the vessel drifted around the ring of the roof to clear the path as the back walkway dropped. Wolfson emerged with his shotgun in hand. He leapt down, landed on a droid, and aimed to his right and fired at another. He charged to the door and bulldozed it off its hinges to gain access to the center.
It was time to save his new boss.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Wolfson kicked down the door to one of the halls and immediately, a duo of bots lunged at him, close enough that he was able to eliminate both with one shot. He proceeded down the stairs and activated a light on his shoulder pad, only for a sniper shot from below to shoot it off. The sniper vanished into the nearby room as he leapt down the remaining flights, brandishing his ax as he pounded into the carcass of an Arbiter droid.
He looked up as one of the improved models aimed a cannon at him with a group close behind it. Reflexively, he threw his ax and caught the side of the cannon which erupted and scattered the droids around it. Directly ahead, the sniper took aim across the way, but the head officer rolled out of the sightline and yanked out his hand cannon. He had fired several shots before the sniper activated a cloak. “Sasha, where are you, dammit?” he called. “I’ll lose a kill because I’m busy worrying about you.”
“You won’t.” A calm reply crackled over the comms and a door at the other end of the building began to slide open. Wolfson caught the sniper reactivating their cloak. “Sasha!”
A figure appeared in the doorway and there was a loud crack followed by another thump. Sasha flipped his rifle and aimed it down as the head officer hurried over. The sniper’s cloak fell away as quickly as it had activated.
“Humph,” the giant grunted and slung his shotgun over his shoulder. “Were you simply waiting to make a grand entrance?”
“I was a few floors down, Wolfson,” the commander explained as he stepped past his friend. “Dealing with some soldiers. One of them had a jamming device so I had to eliminate them first.”
“It’s good to see you, Officer Wolfson,” Akello said as she stepped through the doorway behind the commander.
He smirked and adjusted his shotgun sling. “Aye, Akello, it’s good to see you. It’s also nice to see the chancellor hasn’t forgotten his manners while taking you on a walk through this enemy-infested building.”
Sasha looked at the other side of the room and hastily took aim at something and fired. Sparks and smoke burst and flurried in the corner of the room. “Crawler drone,” he explained and turned as a small, spider-like droid fell from the ceiling “We should be on the move. The droids are only a couple of floors below us now.”
Wolfson looked at the sniper “Should we take her for interrogation?” he asked.
The other man nodded, although he was obviously reluctant. “We don’t have many options now. Laurie hasn’t contacted me to let me know if he found anything so we need some way to get information.”
“I agree with ya there.” He heaved the unconscious sniper up and slung her over his shoulder. “All right, let’s get moving before Kaiden gets bored and starts getting funny ideas.”
“Do you think I should get my boots on the ground?” Kaiden yelled into the cabin.
“Are you an idiot?” Silas asked.
“That’s…a stupid…question,” Raul mumbled.
“Oh, hey, Raul is coming to,” the enforcer noted.
Mack stretched. “I can’t say I don’t understand. We have real weapons now and they’re simply sitting there.”
“Not to mention that I’d rather die fighting than because Kaiden can’t fly,” Luke muttered as the ace made another sudden turn to fire on the bots below.
“Do you wanna give this a shot?” he retorted. “Chief, are you still tracking?”
“Yeah. It looks like they are coming up. Get ready to swing by.” His eye narrowed as he changed to an annoyed red. “I’ve tried to hack into the droids and mechs ever since we destroyed the disruptor, but nothing doing.”
“I have had similar issues as well, my friend.” Kaitō agreed and appeared next to Chief on the screen.
The EI eyed the new arrival with a wide eye. “Whoa, where the hell did you come from?”
“Hey, Kaiden!” Wolfson’s voice boomed out of the pilot’s console. “We’re coming up. Get your ass over here.”
“Someone’s cranky,” he muttered.
“What was that?”
“I’m on my way, Wolfson,” he responded and banked toward the Animus Center. As he did so, he took another look at the destruction of the campus and both his dorm and the cafeteria, in particular. The dorm was on fire and the cafeteria was in a shambles, at least half of it crushed under its own metal, glass, and stone.
He tensed but forced himself to put his focus on recovering his mentors. They would be needed in the fight to come.
In fact, they would all need each other for there to be victory after this.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
When will the siege be done?
Very soon.
Can’t give me an ETA?
I would say in about an hour or less. Depends on the charge of the core.
That doesn’t give me much time but I’ll make do. You might want to hurry up and take your leave as well.
Dario put the tablet away and wondered what Damyen was up to. It didn’t particularly bother him, but if he messed up badly, he would probably have a new assassination directive in short order.
He boarded his ship and glanced back as he walked up the rear bridge. Although it seemed such a waste, he had to agree with Merrick. It would be better to create a new symbol than to simply reuse an old one. And for that to happen, they would need to be rid of the old symbol.
That and they probably didn’t have the forces to really take over the World Council. He would have loved to try. But as he looked at his tablet and saw that the remaining droids were being destroyed at a rather brisk rate, he acknowledged that now would be the best time to make his exit.
The bridge withdrew behind him and the door closed. He activated his ship’s cloaking device—although he knew it wouldn’t be enough to escape completely unnoticed. He was almost certain that the turrets guarding the outer ring of the city would fire upon any ship trying to leave at this point.
Or, at least, that would have been a problem if it wasn’t for the encoder he took from the lab. It was rather annoying that it was the only one he could find, but one small headache saved a much bigger one. He sat in the pilot’s seat and placed the chip into a slot on his console, smiling as the system booted up. It unfortunately did not give him full access to all systems on the cloud city or anything like that, but it would mean that the defenses wouldn’t register him as suspicious and he could leave without problems.
But he wouldn’t depart quite yet, merely find a suitable location to watch the fall of a symbol.
“Along with the attack on Nexus academy, there were simultaneous attacks all over the world. These were led by various terrorist organizations as well as black market mercenary companies seemingly under the employ of these terrorists. There have been no demands listed or even any explanation as to why these different organizations are even working with one another as many have conflicting interests.”
The reporter continued to speak while Julio attempted to contact Kaiden, Sasha, or anyone associated with Nexus to try to find out what was happening—if they were even alive.
“Better news comes from Terra, as we have been assured by various high-ranking officers that the attempted takeover is almost at an end. We are told that the military will scour the entire city to be sure that no threats remain from these mysterious assailants and that the police have already started initial sweeps. They should soon have suspects in custody who can shed more light on the systematic attacks.”
Laurie’s shuttle finally found a landing zone. It appeared that they were the third shuttle to arrive, at least at this particular location. The doors opened and
he, Cyra, and all the other technicians with them exited the vessel and studied the view of the city.
“It looks like they’re mostly unharmed,” Cyra said, her voice quiet as she frowned at the cityscape.
“I’m not sure we can exactly breathe a sigh of relief,” the professor said, his tone a little short as he strode ahead. “With that colossus above us, we need to get as far away from here as possible. There is no point in surviving a slaughter only to be turned to glass by that monster’s cannon.”
“Where should we go?” she questioned and tried to keep pace with him.
“Seattle would be the obvious and easy option,” he stated as his gaze darted around to check on Academy evacuees and seemingly looking for someone amongst the police and medical professionals. “Seattle has enough defenses to at least make the ship unlikely to simply barrel into it. Hell, if I can convince the mayor to give me access to the bio-sphere, I can convert it into a shield with enough tinkering.”
“So we need to evacuate the entire town as well?” Cyra asked, her expression a little daunted. “Do we even have enough shuttles to do that?”
“That’s what I’m trying to determine right now,” he replied and tapped the shoulder of an officer assisting a newly landed shuttle. “Pardon me. Who is in charge here?”
The man shook his head. “Honestly, I couldn’t really tell you. Most of the real leadership is on the front lines making sure those bots don’t get into the city itself.”
“I see. Whatever the case may be, I need to at least discuss evacuating the populace.” Laurie pointed at the enormous vessel. “I’m sure you know that we are not truly safe while we are near that thing.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to understand that,” the officer agreed. “We’ve notified nearby cities and are bringing together all the carriers and shuttles we can and have already warned the city to evacuate through the network.”
Invasion (Animus Book 10) Page 18
