“I finished my little recon flight,” Chief declared, floating back down to the trio.
“What did you find?” the infiltrator inquired.
“There are three doors in here. One is about three klicks south, and the other two are five klicks north, separated from each other by one hundred yards.”
“You have any idea what’s behind them?” the ace asked.
“I don’t have x-ray vision. At least not without the mod.” Chief huffed with exaggerated patience. “And just like all the other rooms, I can’t scan through the doors. It’s a crapshoot.”
“Figures.” Kaiden sighed. “You guys have any suggestions, or should we simply spin one of us around a few times and whichever way they hobble, that’s where we go?”
“While I would suggest going in the direction of the two doors since that gives us more options, the fact that we don’t know what’s in here with us concerns me. They are farther away, which means more chances to run into something hostile,” Genos pointed out.
“Fair point, but we are armed to the teeth now and have some healing serums to boot. So we can take on anything with sharp teeth and claws that decides to get feisty.” Kaiden looked at the trees and up into the air. “But if there’s a volcano around, let’s try to not get close to it.”
“True, but we don’t want to diminish our supplies too quickly. We don’t know where we are or what floor. If we were transported to the top, we’ll have to give up on our plan and play this out the traditional way. The long way,” Chiyo emphasized.
“Let’s go with the closer one. It’ll get us out of here, and we can get our bearings sooner,” Kaiden suggested and pulled his rifle. “You can spirit yourself away for now, Chief. Don’t think I’ll be needing to cast you into a coconut.”
“Then I shall take my leave and take a well-earned nap,” he declared and vanished.
Genos approached one of the trees and laid a hand on the bark. “Maybe we should take a look at the fauna. If the maps are more detailed, perhaps this is based upon an actual destination on the planet. We would have a better understanding of what awaits us.”
“Possibly, unless this is based on a planet other than Earth,” the infiltrator argued.
“Looks pretty Earth-like. Not seeing blue trees and yellow skies, so they aren’t exactly original with their designs.” Kaiden sauntered along a path and looked toward something in the air that caught his eye. He aimed quickly and fired his rifle, and the something plummeted to the ground.
The three ran over to it and discovered it was a small machine—circular with pointed attachments in each direction and a single lens in the middle.
“It’s a probe. A tracker’s probe,” Genos confirmed, picking up the device and studying it. “But the design isn’t human, or at least not one I’ve seen.”
“It’s Sauren.” Kaiden revealed. “Raza has one like it. I got a chance to look at his various weapons and knick-knacks a month back. Similar design, but different color and more streamlined. These little prods on the end seem like balancers of some kind. This thing is rather crude.”
“Sauren tech? That would mean—” Chiyo looked at the others as a small snap was heard in the foliage.
“We’re in a hunting ground,” the ace finished as he donned his mask and readied his weapon.
Genos took out his new rifle and activated it. “We need to move.”
“Looks like Kaiden is going to see if his training with you has paid off, Raza.” Wulfson chortled. “Think he and his friends have what it takes to take on a party of your kind?”
Raza’s eyes narrowed as he studied the screen, watching as the team began to make their way through the jungle. “It depends on the skill of the Saurens they are going to face—and if your technicians designed them to hunt like we do or if they are simply there to be a different enemy type with no substance.”
“I assure you, my technicians design every potential enemy to match the skills and specifics of their real-world counterparts.” Laurie sounded mildly indignant. “We wouldn’t spend hundreds of hours in research and development time to do half-hearted work. If you recall, you were one of our consultants.”
“I do. But discussing strategies and fighting methods is different from the execution.” Raza looked challengingly at the professor. “And since you brought it up, you wanted me to describe the way the traitors fight, not our warriors.”
“Rogue Saurens? This might get nasty.” Wulfson grunted, sat up, and leaned closer to the screen. “Haven’t fought any myself, but Raza has told me a few stories. He seems to respect their propensity for violence.”
“I do not respect traitors. They are honorless, and a taint among our kind,” the Sauren growled. “But they have our training, and many crafted their own ways to fight and hunt after they were banished or fled. They hunt purely for blood.”
“Are you worried for young Kaiden’s safety, Mya?” Sasha asked. He looked over when he received no response. “Mya?”
She looked up from her tablet. “Hmm? Sorry, Sasha, my team was just in a bad situation. I got caught up.”
“It’s all right. You should probably be more invested in your own team,” he acknowledged, returning to watch the scene unfold. “I’ll fill you in after this plays out.”
As the team ran through the forest, Kaiden heard a buzzing from behind them—an odd sound amongst the rustling of the trees and snaps of wood. He turned just in time to see two disks sailing their way. “Get down,” he shouted, firing at the disks. He was able to hit one, and it exploded and sent the other sailing toward a tree. It spun clean through the trunk, enough for it to topple forward. Genos dove toward Chiyo to plow them both out of the way.
“Chief, scan for hostiles. They might be using stealth generators,” Kaiden ordered. He placed the butt of his rifle against his shoulder and looked around at the trees.
“Don’t need to. There’s one in the trees—nine o’clock,” Chief warned.
The ace looked up to see a spotted brown Sauren peering through a fanged mask. It was large—smaller than Raza but at least six and a half feet tall—with broad shoulders and thick arms and legs. The body was almost covered in leather wraps around the chest, waist, and arms. Several long, deep scars traced its arms, and chips in its claws made them look like they had serrated edges.
The alien roared and leaped from the tree. Kaiden rolled back just before it landed, but he could feel the claws slice his coat and armor. He scrambled up and fired several shots. The monster’s skin crackled with a burning glow, but it simply hissed in response and charged. He was used to this dance by now and side-stepped the Sauren’s downward swipe, switching to ballistic rounds. Calmly, he fired two shots to the chest which knocked the reptile back. He smirked as it shrieked in anger.
“Kaiden, two more!” Chiyo warned. The ace looked back to see two new Sauren—one a dark blue with a white chest and the other a nearly camouflaged green—dash through the forest on all fours. He fired a few ballistic rounds at them, but they serpentined around the shots. The team had to move. Kaiden could tell they weren’t as patient or strong as Raza, but they were certainly stronger than any of them, and Genos and Chiyo weren’t used to fighting bloodthirsty Sauren.
“Get to the door. I’ll hold them back,” he ordered as he grabbed two thermals and tossed them on the ground. He sprinted away as the first alien recovered and the other two closed in. The thermals went off, creating a dense cloud of smoke and flinging debris all around. Two trees were blown to the ground. The soldier could see Chiyo and Genos approaching the door. He pushed himself to run faster while placing his rifle on his back and taking out Debonair, then fired behind him as he closed the distance between him and his friends.
Something stopped him in his tracks, and he was dragged back. The brown Sauren had snatched the back of his coat. The reptile pulled him in and slammed his claws into his chest armor. He could feel the tips of the claws against his skin.
“Kaiden!” Chiyo called, her voice fea
rful. Genos spun around and began to fire his rifle at the Sauren, the infiltrator joining in with her submachine gun. The monster hissed in response, took out an orb from his belt, and tossed it toward them. The device popped open and a group of smaller orbs were flung through the air, exploding once they hit the ground. The defenders tried to dodge the explosives, but two fell near her feet, blasting her backward, so she dropped her SMG as her head hit the ground.
The ace raised Debonair and pointed it at the Sauren’s eye, firing a direct shot at the distracted alien. It cried out in pain, flailing with the arm that was embedded in Kaiden’s chest. He yanked out his blade and hit the switch to heat it up. After a few seconds, he slashed at the monster’s fingers, slicing them off. Another howl of pain issued from the beast. The soldier dropped to the ground, retrieved another thermal, and looked at the other two attackers, who were now only a few yards away from them.
He dropped the thermal at the Sauren’s feet and jumped back. The creature bared its razor-sharp teeth and hissed.
“Chief, activate battle suite!” Kaiden ordered.
“Initiating,” Chief acknowledged.
The ace looked at the Tsuna. “Genos, cannon,” he yelled and held out a hand.
His teammate took the cannon from his back quickly and threw it. The thermal exploded, catching the two running aliens in the blast and knocking them back, but the now-one-eyed Sauren had leaped out of the way and was bearing down on Kaiden. The beast pulled a stick from his belt and it extended to a staff with a jagged blade on the end. Time began to slow as the suite kicked in. The ace grabbed the cannon out of the air, rolled back, and held the trigger to power it up.
He knelt, aiming at the beast. The suite helped him find the angle for his shot as the Sauren closed in. It lunged at him as the cannon finished charging, and Kaiden let go. The blast crashed into the enemy’s chest, which evaporated under the searing power of the blast. The reptile’s remaining eye went wide as its lunge was halted in mid-air and it fell to the ground. The shot erupted in its chest, almost completely destroying the top half of the alien hunter.
“Deactivate suite,” Kaiden ordered as he tossed the cannon back to Genos and pointed toward the door.
“Battle suite deactivated.”
He ran over to Chiyo, slid one of her arms around his shoulder, and helped her up. They made for the door. Genos was at the edge of the open doorway, firing at the remaining Saurens, who dodged the blasts. They were, thankfully, more wary of their prey after seeing the death of one of their own.
“Get inside, Genos,” Kaiden demanded as he and Chiyo made it through. The Tsuna fired one more shot, but one of the Saurens moved around the blast and threw two more of the cutting disks at them. He ran through the doorway as the ace drew Debonair to fire at the disks. The shots came close but didn’t manage to hit them. Genos hit the switch to close the door, but as the two halves slid into place, the disks went vertical and sailed through the opening. Kaiden lay back and covered Chiyo’s head as the disks flew barely a couple of inches above him. He heard the reptiles shriek with rage as the doors closed and locked.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Are you two all right?” Genos asked his downed teammates.
“I’m good. I don’t know about Chiyo.” Kaiden pulled the infiltrator to a seated position with him. “Hopefully, she didn’t get a concussion.”
“That sounds like it could be problematic inside the Animus,” the Tsuna said fretfully.
The ace nodded, studying their teammate. “You all right, Chiyo?”
“Yeah… Yeah, I’ll be all right,” she said quietly, her right hand held to the side of her head. “We made it out, I assume?”
“Yeah, took out one of those Sauren bastards for good measure before we split.”
“That’s good. Make up some of the points.” She sighed, reached into her supply box, and located a healing serum. Frowning against the pain, she opened the top and drank it in one go. She let the vial fall to the floor and grimaced slightly at the taste.
“Think you can get to your feet?” Kaiden asked.
“I can, but if you don’t mind helping…”
“Yeah, sure.” He stood and offered her his hand. She took it, and he pulled her slowly to her feet. “Bet you're missing the normal missions right now, huh? Where you can just stay in your little hacker’s cave for most of the mission.”
She laughed weakly. “Maybe I have gotten too used to that. I haven’t had many opportunities to use my abilities so far.”
“You did help save us from that horde of Assassin and Havoc droids,” Genos pointed out.
“I suppose. Next year, I should spend a few more points in gun and fighting skills if I’m to be of more use on missions like these in the future.”
“To be fair, I don’t think we’ll have to deal with transforming rooms and dozens of varieties of enemies on a regular basis,” Kaiden pointed out. He looked at another door a few yards away. The disks had embedded into the door, and they vanished in a small white flash.
“Looks like that’s our next destination,” he said, dusting himself off.
Genos looked at the door to the jungle. “I suppose it would seem obvious by now, but it appears any enemies in the previous room cannot follow us once we leave.” He looked at the panel next to the door. “This door now appears permanently locked.”
Kaiden shrugged. “Good thing. Not a lot of room to fight in here.”
Chiyo wiped some of the dirt and grass off her armor and moved her hair out of her face. “If you two are ready, we can proceed.”
“You sure you don’t need a few more minutes?” the ace asked.
She shook her head. “No, we still need to figure out where we were transferred to, and we won’t be able to do— Where’s my gun?” She reached down to the magnetic strips where she had stored her SMG.
“It got knocked out of your hand in the explosion. I had to leave it back there.” Kaiden nodded at the previous room. “Didn’t have time to look for it, sorry.”
“It’s all right, I can make do,” she stated, taking out her Scorpio. “Always adapt.”
“That’s a pretty good motto, and it certainly fits the situation.” He walked down the hall, still holding Debonair. “Let’s see what’s behind door number one, shall we?”
He opened it as the other two followed him. They were greeted by a laser grid a few yards ahead of them.
“Is it a dead end?” he asked.
“No, doesn’t appear to be,” Genos said. “There’s a panel on the wall over there. It looks like a control system.”
“Well, crack those knuckles, engineer, and let’s take a look.”
The trio walked in and toward the box. As the mechanist went to inspect it, Kaiden approached the grid and peered through it. “Looks like there are more teams in here.”
Chiyo came up beside him. They saw seven other teams around them. The room had an octagonal shape. Eight hallways, including their own, all led to a large central chamber with a single computer console in the middle.
“Trap,” he said bluntly.
“It would appear that way, considering all the other rooms with a central device and no obvious defenses,” Chiyo agreed.
“Should we just say screw it and head back?”
“Genos said the door was locked. Besides, you really want to face those Saurens again?”
“At least in there, I have some idea what I’m going to face. Hard to plan for the unknown. It’s like trying to stare at the abyss while you’re in it.” He huffed his annoyance. “As for it being locked, I’m sure between you and Genos you could get it unlocked.
The laser grid disappeared. Kaiden leaned back in slight shock. “What happened?”
“I deactivated the grid,” Genos stated, holding up a bunch of cords. They heard a charge and hum behind them, and the grid reappeared at the doorway.
“Genos, put it back,” Kaiden deadpanned.
“I deactivated the power system. It should have n
o power to activate a failsafe,” the Tsuna explained, looking at the new grid.
“As much as I would like to believe you, the new set of crisscrossing lasers blocking our exit would make me believe that is not the case,” the ace snarked. “Then again, you are the engineer here.”
“It might be like the node. A secondary function is activated once the main power is cut off or the system is compromised,” Chiyo suggested.
“My apologies,” Genos stated as he placed his free hand against his chest and bowed his head slightly.
Kaiden sighed. “No worries. Always adapt, right?” He looked into the main room. “Let’s see what the flavor of bullshit here will be.”
The three walked into the room. Kaiden saw all the grids disappear in the other halls. The teams seemed to either stand in surprise or walk right in.
“You think this will turn into some sort of match or race?” the mechanist asked.
“Some of those teams don’t seem to know what’s going on. I think some of those grids turned off by themselves—unless you somehow knocked out the whole system?” Kaiden looked expectantly at the engineer.
“No, it was only connected to that individual grid,” he confirmed. “Something is amiss.”
“It appears they are trapped in here just like we are,” Chiyo confirmed. “Their doors are blocked as well.”
All the teams walked into the room. The initiates looked around or talked amongst themselves. Kaiden scanned the room, sizing up the competition, and saw some familiar armor. “No way.” He chuckled. “Hey, Flynn.”
The marksman raised a hand in acknowledgment. “Kaiden. Good to see you.”
“Hey, guys,” Marlo yelled as Amber waved at them.
The ace began to walk over. “You guys been doing al—” He stopped as he felt the ground shift and looked down to see lines forming under his feet. With a muttered oath, he jumped back to stable ground as walls erupted around him, soaring up twenty-five feet. The walls appeared all through the room, creating a maze and trapping the teams, separating them from each other.
Animus series Boxed Set Page 85