“He can make up the distance with the right path,” Laurie stated, pouring a few different liquors and a couple of spices into the shaker. “As long as he makes it into the top ten, I would consider it a success. Most special cases don’t get higher than the twentieth position on a good year.”
Sasha nodded slowly, hardly listening to the professor at this point as he saw a trio of soldiers disappear off the map, ported back to a checkpoint approximately two miles back. It would appear they ran into something particularly nasty or were caught off-guard. The commander selected one of the three students, accessing their POV camera, then he rewound it to the point of their death.
His eyebrows raised for a moment, observing the creature that had killed the students. He leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment, looking at the position of the creature on the map and Kaiden’s current trajectory.
The ace had finished off a four-man team of grunts while he was looking at the other students, but as he continued to make his way across the map, Sasha could see that he would run far beyond the position of the creature.
He felt a little disappointed. In all honesty, he wanted to see Kaiden take it on. He had no statistics on how the soldier would deal with such a problem. Then he saw the creature’s dot on the screen begin to move rapidly across the map—heading in Kaiden’s direction, he realized. At its current speed, it was highly probable that it would intercept him.
“Laurie, you may want to hurry with that drink,” Sasha informed the professor as he switched back to Kaiden’s POV. “We could be in for something quite exciting.”
Kaiden lobbed a thermal in the direction of a pack of armed droids, their lightly armored chassis little help as they were ripped apart in the blast. He scanned their remains quickly, Raptor at the ready, and got the all clear from the scan. Both were sufficiently deactivated.
“Ah, those sweet, delicious points,” Chief murmured happily. “Don’t have the point totals for every student here, but you’ll get that at the end.”
“How do you think we’re faring so far?” Kaiden asked as he looked over the broken droids for salvage.
“Could always be better. Our current score is eleven thousand, but besides those heavies in the first group of mercs, we haven’t had any real big hitters.”
“Point piñatas,” Kaiden corrected with a grin.
“You trying to make that a thing? Probably not gonna happen.”
Kaiden shrugged as he continued his run through the jungle. “How far in are we? Or do you even know?”
“Not without an overview of the real map. According to your steps, we’ve gone over five miles, but considering the fighting and slight change of paths, we’re probably a little under that.
“So no time to rest then?”
“Depends on how fast you can run and how many more points you wanna rack up. The finish line is a little over twenty miles from the starting point.”
“Really? That ain’t too bad. I can run twenty miles in an hour.”
“I’m guessing on flat ground? Without a pack of weapons, gadgets, and armor?”
“Good point,” Kaiden conceded begrudgingly. “Probably won’t be one of the first ten to get there.”
“Probably not, but on the upside, those who do are probably skipping out on kills and collectibles.”
“I wish there was something that could really give us a boost. Speaking of others, haven’t seen too many other initiates along the path.”
“It’s a big jungle. Plus, we lost some distance with the mine fiasco.”
“Pretty sure at least a few have died in the time that we’ve…actually, how long have we been out here?”
“Thirty-two minutes and fifty-three seconds.”
“See? Not too bad.”
Kaiden heard a crack come from somewhere ahead. He stopped mid-stride, drew Debonair, and slid behind a tree. “Chief, scan for enemies,” he commanded, peeking from behind the protection of the tree.
“On it,” Chief acknowledged, the white line moving through his vision. “Nothing onscreen obviously…but I got some venting exhaust coming from behind the tree fifty feet ahead…and a Prisma glitch.”
“Meaning?”
“The exhaust is from a weapon. From the venting, I deduce the model isn’t something the mercs or droids have used. The Prisma glitch means that I’m registering a body but no vital signs or physical details. Looks like someone’s got a stealth generator.”
Kaiden lowered his weapon slightly. He sucked in a breath—time to take a chance. Carefully, he leaned out from his cover and shouted, “I’m Kaiden Jericho, Ace in the Soldier Division. If you’re another Soldier, I recommend coming out now. Otherwise, you’ll probably lose a life in the next thirty seconds.”
“Awfully cocky, aren’t we?” a voice with a notable Australian accent called back. Kaiden saw a body suddenly appear in the middle of the thicket, dressed in camo light armor like himself with a hood over his mask. Two eyes stared out from behind circular lenses. “Especially considering I had my sights on you before you ducked behind the tree,” he added, holding up a black-and-silver sniper rifle. Kaiden could tell from the design it was a magnetic model. It looked like a sniper version of the Yokai pistol he’d toyed with during his tests with Sasha.
“If you wanted to do any real damage, you would’ve had to charge up the shot. Considering you were right in front of me, my EI would have seen the magnetism activating in your sniper rifle and warned me before you got the shot off.”
“And what? You would have ducked behind the tree? This is a Revenant model, mate. It would have pierced right through the tree at full charge.”
“That would also depend on you being a good shot.”
The sniper lowered his weapon and tilted his head. “Cheeky bastard, aren’t ya?”
“Might as well be a second language,” Kaiden admitted.
The man chuckled, then looked back. “Marlo, Amber, you guys can come out.”
Kaiden saw two figures emerge from behind the trees. One was a rather large man with a cannon-like weapon, decked out in heavy red armor. The other was a woman with camo light armor and a full helmet with a large visor that covered her entire face.
“The big one is Marlo, demolitions, and the other is Amber, a battle medic,” he said as he turned and placed a hand on his chest. “Name’s Flynn—marksman, obviously.”
“Nice to get acquainted,” Kaiden said with a nod. “I was just wondering about the fact that I hadn’t run into anyone yet.”
“Yeah, we broke from the group about five minutes in. Most of them ran into a camp on the western edge of the starting zone for some easy points. Good call on our part. The majority ended up getting caught in a detonated explosion and lost a life.”
“Wow, that makes me feel a little better.”
“No kiddin’,” Kaiden whispered.
“What was that?” Flynn asked.
“Talking to my EI,” Kaiden answered with a wave of his hand. “So, how you guys doing so far?”
“Can’t complain.” Amber walked up and crossed her arms. “The big man here has taken most of the damage for us.”
Marlo chuckled. “The blood-red armor gives them a nice and easy target, but it’s so thick that I barely get hurt. Flynn takes them down from afar, and Amber patches up any boo-boos I happen to get from their pea shooters.”
“You’re lucky we haven’t run across a group of heavies. You need to be more careful,” she warned.
“Sure thing, Mom. I’ll be sure to play nice with the other nice boys with Tesla cannons,” he scoffed.
“You’ve been on your own, I’m guessing?” Flynn asked.
“Yeah, being a team player is a little…let’s just go with the truth that collateral damage is a thing when I fight.”
“Might wanna work on that if you’re an ace,” Amber stated.
“So I keep hearing, but that’s what the training and workshops are for, right?”
“Only if you’re willing to le
arn, but it seems to be working for you for now. That’s an impressive point score you got,” Flynn admitted.
“You can see my points?” Kaiden asked.
“Yeah. When your EI sees another initiate in a war game like this, they can read their basic stats,” Marlo explained.
“Huh. Chief give me a readout.” Kaiden commanded.
“Your EI’s name is Chief?” Flynn asked.
“Better than yours.” Amber snickered. “Seriously, Jeeves? You miss the butler back at your posh abode?”
“He was like a father to me,” Flynn declared.
“Still think you should have gone with Dingo,” Marlo muttered.
“That’s a stereotype, Marlo, as I’ve told you at least a dozen times now.”
As the trio made small talk, Chief got their stats, giving him their names, classes, divisions, weapons, armor, and gadget readout, point score—each of them had sixty-five hundred points—enemies killed—fourteen between them—and zero collectibles earned, along with a picture of them without armor. Kaiden also noticed a small blue circle with the number three within it.
“Guessing that little circle means they’re in a party?” Kaiden whispered.
“Yep. Could use it to our advantage. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to stick with them.”
“Wouldn’t work out with our plan. Like you said, the points split when you’re in a party. They’ve killed more than we have but they have fewer points.”
“Also sound like they haven’t really run into anything worth much, but you’re right.”
Kaiden nodded as he looked back at the trio. “Well, nice to meet you, but I got more ground to cover.”
Flynn looked back. “Same here, but it was nice to run into someone friendly. Hope to see you at the finish line.”
“You could stay with us,” Amber offered.
“I appreciate it, but like I said, collateral damage,” Kaiden reminded her, and when he looked past them, he saw the foliage begin to sway and the wind kicked up slightly.
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’d be the one in front,” Marlo declared, placing his cannon on the ground and flexing an arm. “And I can deal with anything.”
Just then, Kaiden saw talons dig into Marlo’s armor, and in a single moment, he was gone. The others jumped back as they heard a loud yell in the air. Kaiden drew his Raptor.
“What the hell was that?” he growled, scanning the air.
“Where’s Marlo?” Amber yelled, pulling a sub-machine gun from her hip holster.
Then, in the distance, they heard him scream. “Sssshhhhhiiiiitttt!” It faded away after a few seconds.
“Dammit, Marlo’s dead.” Flynn cursed vociferously. “He lost a life and got ported back to the checkpoint.”
“That’s almost a mile back,” Amber yelled, backing up against a tree.
“Well, depending on what this is, we may be joining him soon,” Flynn muttered.
Kaiden continued to scan the skyline, reaching for his ballistic shots to load into his gun.
“I should remind you we haven’t gotten a checkpoint so—”
“If I die, it’s back to the start.”
“Helpful tip: don’t die,” the EI warned.
“Wasn’t planning to— Oh, shit! Hostile inbound,” Kaiden cried out.
A flying red creature with a long wingspan, pointed tail, and massive, scythe-like talons dive-bombed from the sky. They fired simultaneously—plasma shots from Kaiden, metallic spikes from Flynn, and rapid-fire lasers from Amber. The beast maneuvered around the shots, barely grazed at best as it tore through the sky.
“Devil Bird,” Amber yelled. “We have to run.”
“Like hell.” Kaiden roared his fury, switched to auxiliary fire, and began blasting ballistic shots into the air. The monster halted its decent and swung away to avoid the explosive projectiles.
“We can’t take that thing without a heavy weapon. It’ll tear us to shreds,” Flynn cautioned.
“Then get the hell out of here and get your big gun,” Kaiden called back, continuing to fire. “You said he was less than a mile away, right? Can’t you track him? He should be on his way.”
Flynn charged up another shot. “Yeah, but he’s in heavy armor, remember? He can’t exactly sprint.” He fired at the Devil Bird as it came back into view.
“Cover me. Need to reload ballistic rounds,” Kaiden ordered, quickly ejecting the empty clip from the secondary port and inserting a new one. Amber ran out of the cover of the tree and fired into the sky.
Kaiden closed the port and aimed upward, firing at the giant bird as it ascended. “Get back to him. I’m either gonna take this thing down and get the points or I’ll die trying, and you should be back by then and have better luck.”
“You’re insane, mate. It usually takes a team of hunters to bring this thing down,” Flynn explained.
“My plan was probably insane to begin with, anyway, considering everything on this paradise island they loaded us on. Your ID said you got smokes—mind popping one before you go?”
Flynn took out a large black sphere. He pressed a button on the side and tossed it out onto the field before activating his stealth generator and disappearing. “You got brass balls, Kaiden. See you at the finish. Amber, retreat, and let’s go get Marlo.”
“Acknowledged,” the battle medic shouted, stopping her assault and venting her weapon. “Best of luck to you.”
“It’s been shit overall, but good in spurts.” Kaiden chuckled as he used the cover of the smoke to find a hiding spot, waiting for the Devil Bird to hit the ground.
The other two disappeared into the forest. Kaiden prepared to fire in case the monster went after them, but after a minute in which it circled the area, it landed. He waited, taking a good look at the crimson predator as he heard it growl while scanning the tree line.
“Since when do birds growl?” he whispered.
“Since when do they come in that terrifying flavor? It’s a mutant, dumbass. It’s not exactly playing by mother nature’s rules.”
Kaiden pressed up against the tree as the Devil Bird looked in his direction, black eyes with red irises leering his way for a moment before it shifted to look the opposite way.
“Got any helpful tips for taking it down?”
“A shitload of bullets usually does the trick, but we would probably get eaten before you caused any real damage.”
“Does it have any weak spots?”
“Top of the head is pretty malleable, but you’d have to climb a tree or something to get a clear shot. Even then, it would probably notice you before you got up top.”
Kaiden pondered this for a moment as he studied the curve of the creature’s back. The beast was big, at least seventeen feet. That gave him a new idea.
An idea he would soon come to regret—or at least Chief would as Kaiden holstered his rifle and took out his knife.
“Oh, sweet deviled eggs and Christ child, don’t do this…” Chief moaned.
“Too late.” Kaiden raced toward the Devil Bird, leaping into the air just as it turned its head to see him. He ignited the blade and dug the knife into the creature’s back. It shrieked in anger and pain, thrashing about.
“You’re not using my helpful tip,” Chief yelled angrily.
“If I can stab it in the head, maybe the heat of the blade will let me burrow into the skull and stab its brain. That should do it, right?” Kaiden asked, holding onto the pterodactyl-like bird for dear life.
“Yeah. If it doesn’t kill you first. And if it doesn’t…” Chief’s voice faded out as the Devil Bird expanded its wings, and with one hard thrust, took to the skies.
“Take off.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Flynn slid down the small hill, waving to Marlo. “Good to see you’re all together, mate.”
“What the hell happened?” he demanded, shouldering his cannon. “One moment we were chatting it up with that ace, then next, I am skewered through my shoulders and rag-dolled through the
air.”
“The fall killed you?” Flynn asked.
“I fell over two hundred feet. My armor was compromised, anyway.”
“Yeah, that would about do it. Guess you aren’t that tough of a walnut to crack.”
“I guess I better hope I don’t run into any mercs with trampoline launchers, or I’m screwed,” Marlo jeered, rolling his eyes.
“Good to see you, Marlo, but we have to double back,” Amber shouted from atop the hill.
“Why, what’s going on?” he called back.
“What took you out was a Devil Bird. Kaiden—that Ace we were talking to—stayed behind to try to take it out,” Flynn explained.
“With those little guns of his?” Marlo asked, astonished. “Dumb bastard will probably get killed before he makes a dent.”
“That’s where we figured you’d help out. If we move fast enough, we can probably help him take it out before it eats him.”
“And we’ve wasted enough time talking. Let’s get moving,” Amber commanded.
Marlo primed his cannon. “Right. Which way?”
Just then, the trio heard the roar of the Devil Bird, the wind howling as it tore through the sky overhead. They also heard a man screaming.
“Fuuucccckkkkk!”
“Is that…” Marlo’s voice trailed off.
“Looks like that way,” Flynn declared, arming himself. “Let’s roll!”
“We aren’t gonna catch up to a Devil Bird at full speed,” Amber exclaimed as she slid down the hill.
“Probably not,” Flynn admitted. “But I would like to see the aftermath.”
“Is that the last of them, Izzy?” Silas, an Enforcer Class Soldier, asked the scout.
“Looks like it. Nothing else on the radar,” she stated, looking up from the group of merc and droid bodies.
“We certainly fell for that ambush,” he muttered, placing his rifle back into its holster.
Animus series Boxed Set Page 25