Invasion (Animus Book 10)

by Joshua Anderle

  “Did you decide on a destination?”

  “We recommended Seattle as the closest available city for defensive reasons. But I can’t imagine that many will want to risk still being within such a close range of that thing.”

  “Particularly if they are able to get Aurora online,” the professor muttered and looked away for a moment before he returned his gaze to the officer. “Have you been able to make contact with the WC? I would imagine that even if they are in the middle of an important discussion or their usual prattle, this would get their attention.”

  The man’s eyes widened for a moment before he drew in a sharp intake of breath and shook his head. “Right. Obviously, you wouldn’t know. None of you would.”

  Laurie raised an eyebrow as Cyra stepped forward. “Know what?”

  “The World Council building has been under attack, probably even before the Academy was,” he explained. “The last I heard, they were still fighting to take it back.”

  His face paled alarmingly quickly. “The world council under attack?” he asked, his voice shaken. “By who? How did they get in?”

  “You would think it would take an army, but from what I heard in the news, a small force was able to slip in and simply take it over from the middle section, lock the top floors, and push the personnel and guards down,” the officer explained and looked briefly at the Academy. “They said they were fighting advanced bots, white and humanoid-looking like the ones that attacked the city and Nexus.”

  The professor pursed his lips. His color returned but it was an infuriated red. “This was what they prepared for? What was the purpose? Why spread their forces?” he muttered to himself. He returned his attention to the officer. “Did anything else happen? Was anyone else attacked?”

  “Many people, unfortunately,” the man replied with a nod. “Terrorist cells, gangs, all those bastards have blown things up since this began. I guess they used the chaos to their advantage and simply started all kinds of shit. In Sydney, Beijing, Vancouver, London, you name it. Most of the major cities have had to deal with it since the attack started.”

  Laurie nodded but remained silent as he moved passed the guard. Cyra nodded to the man in thanks and caught up to the professor, who stared at the colossus. “I should have focused on them more—exposed them—but I was too arrogant. I thought I had more time…” He covered his face with his hand and closed his eyes. “I have failed.” She placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him but suddenly, he stood tall, removed his hand from his face, and balled it into a fist. “But we will prevail! We will not let the Arbiters have their way.”

  Cyra stepped back, surprised by his outburst, but his declaration emboldened her. She looked at the enormous vessel and for the first time since it had appeared, she wasn’t frightened by it. The massive craft wasn’t a terror anymore. Instead, it was something to destroy.

  Chapter Forty

  “Sir, the destroyers Rammstein and Krokus have arrived to join the blockade. I am attempting to contact them so we can link up for orders.”

  The captain shrugged where he leaned against the railing of the command deck as he looked out of the front window. “Yet more ships with nothing to do. We’ve held this blockade all day!” He grunted, his impatience clear in his voice. “We have enough ships here to obliterate half of Europe. Rather than wait here and twiddle our thumbs, we should put an end to this charade of an ‘invasion’ and assist in putting down the terrorist attacks over the world.”

  “It’s a delicate situation, sir,” the executive officer reminded him. “If this invader will not back down, they will be moved to desperate actions. You have to think of the collateral damage and loss of life if we simply try to destroy them. What about any council member still trapped in the building?”

  “Elections will happen soon then, won’t they?” the captain retorted and immediately straightened and held a hand up to calm the officer. “I joke, promise. I know that the troops in the building are making their way up. In fact, ensign, what is their progress?”

  “According to the latest report, they are only four floors from their destination, sir.”

  He nodded and allowed himself a small grin. “Terrific. We might as well tell other ships to head out and do some real work.”

  “Sir, I’ve established a connection to Rammstein and Krokus, but they aren’t responding.”

  The captain and officer looked at the speaker. “Did something go wrong with the comms on their way here?” the officer asked.

  “Scan the ships for signs of damage and maybe try to send messages via the terminal,” the captain ordered. Before the ensign could comply, his terminal deactivated, along with most of those on the command deck. “What the hell is—”

  “Greetings, crew of the Veles,” a deep but jovial voice said over the speakers. “My pardon for the sudden takeover, but my teams aboard the other ships had some complications and ended up on a course over to the frontline. I decided that since we were here, we should try out a new program of ours.”

  “They are trying to commandeer our systems,” the captain snapped. “Purge them now.”

  “I think we’ll only be able to take you and maybe two more at best,” Damyen told him. “That should be fine, however, and more than I anticipated for today. It’s been quite a stressful situation, I assure you, so it’s nice that we can have one beneficial thing happen for once.”

  “Whoever you are, relinquish this ship,” the captain ordered.

  “You should prepare to do that yourself, Captain. I won’t provide an alternative once we take you back to base,” the chancellor warned. “Besides, you should thank us. Unlike all the other ships here, your crew, at least, will live.”

  Sweat trickled down the captain’s brow. This was surely a simple intimidation tactic, right? There were now over sixty vessels present. They had no weapon capable of decimating an armada of this size and would need a device capable of tremendous power and destruction that could obliterate all or most of them in one strike. Did they have a nuke? A rapture cannon? This had to be a bluff. If these terrorists weren’t affiliated with any larger corporation or government, they wouldn’t have been able to create something—

  As his mind frantically considered the implications, he caught another glimpse of Terra below and the answer occurred to him out of the blue—not create but destroy. He paled and looked around hastily as he hurried to his chair. “Get in contact with someone—anyone!” he ordered and tried to access his terminal. “Tell them to pull away!”

  “It’s too late now, dear Captain.” Damyen chuckled. “We should find a safe distance.”

  As Izzy walked the field, attending to those who had made it through the tunnels and been escorted to the medical staff, a few shuttles came in and settled gently at a safe distance. She searched for her friends, anxious to see who else had made it.

  So far, she had yet to find any of them, and the number of those who had made their way there thus far was frighteningly few.

  When she walked past one of the makeshift medical tents, she noticed someone with their hair undone and whose clothes were distressed but recognized the doctor who examined one of the initiates.

  “Doctor Soni,” she cried and rushed inside.

  The woman looked at her and exhaled a sigh of relief as she stood quickly and accepted her embrace. “It’s good to see you, Isadora,” she said, addressing the scout by her full name.

  “Where’s Amber? She made it with you, right?”

  Soni pursed her lips and nodded. “She’s all right, but…” The doctor drifted off for a moment and Izzy’s concern mounted. “During our escape, we were pursued by soldiers as we made our way down the emergency hatch and, to cover our escape, Flynn and Marlo—”

  She didn’t need to finish. The scout’s eyes widened in understanding and shock. “Where is she?”

  Izzy walked into the bunker as others approached the doctor. The woman told her that Amber hadn’t moved since they arrived and had said she simpl
y needed time to compose herself. She had been down there for more than three hours now.

  Quickly, she walked into the mostly barren gathering area and in the corner, huddled into herself, was her friend. She crossed hastily to her, knelt, and placed a hand on her arm. “Amber?”

  The battle medic looked up for a moment. Her eyes were sunken and her jaw clenched, but a spark of life flared in her when she recognized the scout. “Izzy?” she asked, her voice quiet.

  She nodded and slid an arm around her to hold her as Amber did the same. “Your mom told me what happened with Flynn and Marlo,” she whispered gently.

  Amber nodded and drew small, sharp breaths. “They stayed behind so we could get away. I didn’t see what happened—the door shut. I only heard…heard shots and something hitting the ground.”

  Izzy remained silent. Hearing it that way with no details and only the sounds to go on, a dark feeling threatened to come over her as the image came together.

  “Could they have been taken?” her friend asked, as much to herself as to Izzy. “Many of the students… It’s horrible to see it as the better option, but if they were taken, we can get them back, right?”

  Izzy leaned in and gave her friend another hug. “Of course we can, and we will,” she promised. “If they are there, we will get them back with all the others. Everyone lost something today, but I’m sure we will all do our best to get it back.”

  Amber nodded and held her tightly. “Thank you, Izzy.” She uttered a soft sob but pulled away after a moment. Her eyes still contained sadness, but it was eclipsed by a new determination. “We need to go up top. I doubt we’re in the clear simply because we made it across the bay.”

  She smiled. “I think most people are coming to that conclusion.” She helped the medic up and they both headed to the exit of the bunker. “I think I heard some of the officers saying they ordered an evacuation of the town. That they would take the survivors to Seattle.”

  “We’ll be close by, then,” Amber muttered and her eyes narrowed in thought. “I hope we have the chance to destroy them before anyone else.”

  The girls shared a determined look as they ascended the stairs. “We won’t let them have the satisfaction of keeping us on the run. Before long, we’ll be back for what’s ours.”

  The battle medic balled her fist. “Right.” That was her only response as she walked out of the bunker and looked into the sky where the stars had barely begun to show themselves. She stared at the colossus. Flynn and Marlo were in there. She wanted to say she could feel it but she knew she was relying on hope.

  Even so, she wouldn’t let them take that from her.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Merrick watched each battle unfold. Dozens of screens displayed each conflict, all started under his direction. He felt each loss of life and would draw a sharp breath when he saw the fear in an Ark Academy student’s eyes as they were captured. This was for the betterment of humanity but like any surgical improvement, the work was always visceral. The hope was that the outcome could mask it.

  As he watched the fourth screen on which one of their Ark soldiers pushed down on a student from the Ark Ultra Academy in London, he received a message from Oliver Solos.

  He and the other council members had reached the embassy, and he had already set to work listening in on what they planned to do in retaliation. He said that the fleets were mobilizing and would head down to Earth in a few short hours if the assault on the world council was not already put down. Merrick knew it would be finished by then, but they would probably still send the fleets once they saw how.

  The embassy was its own issue, one that he and the others had debated for many days. They knew that every action would only stall defeat and they needed numbers and power to actually increase their chances to a point where victory was an option. He looked at the screen. Three out of five academies were now under their control and the other two would be shortly.

  Damyen was still pirating ships. Combined with the total they had made in preparation, along with what he had now at the last report, they were looking at a fleet of sixty-three ships thus far. There might be a few more by the end of the week but it was hardly a force that would repel the embassy’s forces. They also had general Nolan’s flagship. The colossus was truly a marvel. Only one other had been created prior to the Arbiter Organization’s and it had unfortunately been lost more than a decade before in a massive fight with the Omega Horde.

  That thought reminded him that he needed to get in touch with Jiro to determine when they were supposed to arrive. They would need them soon to make up for the many other patsies lost in the various scuffles. He sent a message to Oliver and asked him to reach out to Jiro with his report and also to confirm that he had given the device to Nolan.

  In only a minute, the man replied and stated that he would talk to Jiro and that he had delivered the device as well as a prototype to Damyen upon request, although he didn’t have much of a clue of what it would be used for.

  The AO leader looked at the map overview of Terra. Several dots were pulling away from the blockade and he wondered how the Russian chancellor had managed to achieve that. He might have been a loose cannon at times, but he backed it with results, a trait to admire.

  The embassy, he reminded himself. He needed to stay focused. So much was going on right now but once they sent their fleets, that could end this before they could really build traction. They had agreed that there were two ways to take the problem on and right now, it depended on the general and Lena to see which they would go with, either the pragmatic choice or the violent one.

  “Get your asses on board. We’re boosting out!” Kaiden yelled to Sasha, Akello, and Wolfson as they scrambled on board.

  “We’ve already boosted her enough. Too much and you could melt the jets,” the giant warned as he strode to the cockpit.

  “Haven’t you sprung for the reinforced inner lining?” the ace complained as he shut the rear dock and quickly whipped the vessel around to avoid a charged shot by one of the mechs below.

  The head officer flattened a hand against the wall to steady himself. “Dammit, boyo, give me the controls.”

  “It’s good to have you onboard, Commander,” Jaxon said and helped Sasha to the bench.

  Chiyo came up and hugged Akello. “I’m glad to see you safe.”

  “I’m glad to be safe,” the head monitor admitted and slid one arm around her while the other held the EI drive. “It’s kinda full circle that you guys would be the ones to come and rescue me.”

  “Have any of you heard from Laurie since the ship shut down?” Sasha asked, interrupting them.

  The infiltrator pulled back and shook her head. “Even when we destroyed the disruptor device, it took time for us to re-establish a connection to the network. And it’s been so hectic that we haven’t been able to contact anyone.”

  “There should have been enough time for the Academy network to be back in working order—unless they have destroyed the servers in the tech department,” Akello said.

  Sasha nodded and retrieved his oculars. “I can check the map—”

  “Sasha!” Kaiden cried and startled all the passengers. “Can you talk some sense into Wolfson? He’s trying to get me to drop him off at the security station.”

  “I still have men and women on Academy grounds,” the head officer yelled in response. “I can’t leave them here.”

  The commander nodded to Akello, stood, and headed to the cockpit where the large man attempted to haul Kaiden out of the pilot’s chair. “Idiot,” he said brusquely. “I still need to get us to a safe distance—which, if you haven’t noticed, is a hell of a long distance away. Besides, you were the one who tried to convince me that retreat was for the best.”

  “Yes, for you,” his friend retorted. “You should get out of here. You’ve done more than can be asked right now, but I have a job to—”

  “And I don’t, Wolfson?” Sasha asked. The head officer’s grasp slackened for a brief moment and
Kaiden pulled himself away and changed course to fly toward the mountains. “I don’t like it either, but we need to be prepared for the counteroffensive once we are able to reconvene and get assistance from the military.”

  “It’s…different between me and you Sasha,” Wolfson argued. “You’re the chancellor now and need to be with the students and get them to safety. I can’t simply leave—”

  “Issue orders for a full retreat,” the commander said. “If there are more shuttles available, tell your guards to sweep the island and find any remaining students or staff they can. Then, they can activate their personal beacons and be picked up. That would be more of a help than merely fighting the droids.”

  The large man sighed and finally nodded. “Fine. You’re right, but I won’t sit around for months while the WC gets their shit together. We’ll retaliate soon, right?”

  Sasha was silent. He wanted to but realistically, he couldn’t give him an answer yet. Kaiden finally set a course toward the town and they stared with grim expressions as more pods ascended toward the ship in the distance. He briefly contemplated shooting them down—that would have to be more of a mercy than letting the enemy have them, right?

  He shook it out of his mind. No, they would get them back. He had to rely on what everyone said, that there was a reason they had taken them and that they could get them back. His lip flared with a sharp pain on his lip and he realized he’d bit it too hard in his frustration. The three soldiers in the cockpit looked equally disgruntled. All of them were used to running operations and completing their missions or, at the very least, making sure the enemy had hell to pay.

  They were all going against their instincts on this one, having to rely on tactics and on hope rather than action or strategy. Kaiden simply turned away from the pods and focused on the horizon.