“We really did cut it close,” he mused quietly when he saw that there were only six timers remaining. Each counted down to the approximate deadline for the golems. “Fortunately, the replacements are made of more durable material.” He changed screens and pressed a green activation button before he set that device aside when the other finished booting up and accessed the system.
In the hangar bay of the council building, several guards jogged over to the group of messenger ships in the corner of the east wing when they heard loud bangs from within.
“Is anyone on board?” the leader asked and cautiously approached the rear entrance of one of the ships, his weapon ready.
“No, sir,” an officer answered. “These came in this morning, all automated.”
“And they weren’t checked? What’s in—” His question cut off abruptly when the door hurtled off the back of the ship and into him and a large group of white-and-silver Arbiter droids surged from the vessel. The guards tried to fire but were incinerated by the mechanicals’ plasma cannons. Other ships began to fall apart and revealed more of the invaders that immediately began to scatter. Some intercepted incoming guards while others forced their way out of the hangar and made their way deeper into the building.
Dario watched the monitors as the droids began their attack and noted that there were probably a little over a hundred all in all. They should be enough to maintain the chaos, but the guards would regroup sooner or later and they still had the numbers advantage. He picked the connected tablet up and smiled as he pressed a button and initiated the lockdown procedure. That should cause a few delays.
Alarms began to blare and the shields activated throughout the building. The assassin smiled as he pressed a few more keys and began the more important part—uploading the virus. Once it had settled in and assumed control, he would be able to send it to any other machine or ship connected to the WC. That, in his opinion, would make the fight a little fairer.
He took out an EI pad and instructed his device to contact Merrick. In short order, the AO leader appeared in hologram form. “What do you have to report, Dario?”
“Phase one is well underway now,” he stated as he checked the tablet’s progress. “I’m sure Jensen did good work on this virus, but it looks like it will take some time before it loads.”
“Are you worried that you may be caught and stopped before the upload can finish?” Merrick questioned.
“Caught? Perhaps, but I certainly won’t be stopped,” he promised. “Although I will say I do hope that Nolan had the gift prepared before his departure. I’m not certain how long our current forces will last.”
“I would think you would relish the chance to have your fill of violence.” His boss chuckled and he simply smiled in return and shrugged nonchalantly. “Don’t worry, my friend. The destroyer is on the way.”
“Splendid. When will it be here?”
“According to the captain’s terminal, ETA is in an hour.”
“Captain’s terminal? Are you the captain?” Dario asked, amused as he leaned casually against his console. “Did you decide to join the fun yourself?”
“It’s where I am needed most,” Merrick stated, a look of determination on his face. “I trust Nolan to take care of Nexus and for everyone else to fulfill their parts. But making sure to topple the council’s systems and bring them under our control is top priority. Everything else is to ensure we have the best opportunity to do so.”
“Understood.” The assassin looked up when someone pounded on the plated door and guards called frantically for assistance. “I have to go for now.” He activated his nanos and walked to let in the new guests. “I’ll see you soon, capo.”
Chapter Ten
The protective dome over the island had somehow been disabled and Nexus students sprinted out of the way of the falling pods. Some ran into buildings while others tried to pull or push others in their path who were too shocked to move. Security bots flooded the plaza seconds before loud hissing issued from each of the grounded pods. Four sections on each disengaged and Arbiter droids emerged. Their eyes flickered to life as they scanned the students around them.
There seemed to be a dozen droids per pod, and more and more landed on the island. Even those that plunged into the lake didn’t falter and some students hurried away from the edges of the island as blue lights could be seen in the water only a few seconds after the pods crashed.
The security bots ordered the students to get back. Many of them helped to escort them to safer areas while others prepared to engage, but they were not as well armed as their adversaries. Most were equipped with shock gauntlets, stun lasers, and force blasters, weapons meant to daze or disable a target, not destroy it.
Several of the Arbiter bots locked in place and looked skyward as their mouths opened wide. A static shriek emitted from their speakers before a message began to play.
“Students and faculty of Nexus academy. We are here for your technology and your service. Your deaths would be most unwelcome and tragic. Please surrender and your lives will be spared until our offer can be made. If you do not comply…” The Arbiter droids arms began to change. Some became cannons while others transformed into flamethrowers or bot casters. Others simply had plasma blades extended that they held up with clear intent. “Then we will do what we must to accomplish the mission.”
Many of the students looked at one another, confused, angry, or frightened. Over near the bushes that decorated the entrance to the cafeteria, Indre, Izzy, Otto, and Julius stared as the security bots began to back away, clearly more focused on keeping the students safe than engaging the hostiles.
Otto noticed a lone bot only a dozen or so yards away. He slid a hand into his pants pocket, pressed a few buttons on his tablet, and caught Indre’s gaze. She held down the trigger on a device in her pocket.
“To hell with this!” a voice in the crowd shouted as a student engineer—indicated by the orange band around his arm—hammered a small crowbar that he took out of his bag into the back of one of the droids’ head. In one movement, he yanked it back and popped a piece of its shell off. The droid threw the student aside and turned to take aim, but before it could fire, its chest burst apart from a shot by the one Otto had taken control of.
His success was short-lived as the mechanical almost immediately turned to him and prepared an attack from its cannon, which was now aimed at the technician. Several shots came from above and it staggered long enough for Izzy to pull Otto away and the group made their escape. He looked at two small drones that attacked the droids and raised an eyebrow at Indre, who had a satisfied smile on her face.
The skirmish seemed to be enough to stir the previously stunned students into retaliation. Some attacked with whatever tools or devices they had with them while others ran to find what they could. The Arbiter droids began to fire into the crowds but most of their attacks were intercepted by the security bots who went onto the offensive to do what damage they could to hold off the onslaught.
“This is an emergency situation, you guys,” Akello warned as Kaiden and his friends stormed outside. “It’s safer for you to stay in here.”
“Holy shit.” Cameron yelped as the group stopped to stare at the massive ship that approached the island, along with the hail of pods that descended into the plaza and the lake.
The ace squinted and immediately recognized the armor design and colors of the droids that emerged from the pods. “Chief, are those…”
“The Arbiter droids,” The EI nodded. “Son of a bitch.”
“What is going on?” Genos asked, his eyes wide. “Are we under attack?”
“We are,” Jaxon stated grimly and held a hand to his commlink. “I can’t connect to the network.”
All the others tried but to no avail. “They’ve shut it down or jammed it.” Kaiden grunted and looked over to the gym. “We’ll have to go and find everyone ourselves. Either follow me or stay with Akello and barricade yourself in the Animus center.”
�
��Like hell!” Flynn shouted and he nodded at the marksman and motioned for them to follow him to the gym. Chiyo looked at Akello. “See if you can reach someone. We’ll try to direct others over here for safety.”
The head monitor frowned into the sky. “I’m not sure how safe the center will be,” she muttered. “What would someone want with us? Other than—”
“The Animus,” Chiyo stated. She clenched her fists and took one last look at the woman. “Please be safe and don’t try anything foolish. We’ll be back.” With that, she hurried to catch up with the rest of the group as they followed Kaiden.
“Where are we going?” Cameron asked.
“The gym. Wolfson has a personal stash of weapons I can get us access to,” the ace explained. “I’ve fought those droids and we’ll need more than sticks and practice weapons to confront them.”
“You’ve fought them?” Marlo asked. “What are they? They don’t look like normal Soldier droids.”
“I call them Arbiter droids. The best way to think of them is as modified Havoc droids,” he explained as he pushed through the gym entrance. A few dozen students worked feverishly to take the machinery and workout stations apart to use the pieces and equipment as makeshift weapons.
“It’ll be one thing dealing with the bots,” Chiyo said with another glance at the enormous vessel above them. “But that ship will require more than only firepower.”
“Sasha?” Wolfson bellowed into his comm. He barreled out of the R&D building with the plasma cannon Laurie had given him, charged it immediately, and fired as soon as a few of the familiar droids appeared. He turned barely in time to see one aim at him with a torch, prepared to burn him alive. In response, he raised an arm outfitted with a gauntlet of Laurie’s design. A shimmering purple field enveloped it as the flames surged from its arm. The purple energy erupted from his gauntlet and enveloped both the flames and the mechanical, which began to melt as it was trapped inside the barrier with its own flames.
“Sasha, can you hear me?” he called again
“Wol…Sir..ere?” a distorted voice answered over the comms.
“Who is this?” he asked as he flipped a switch on the cannon to select its beam mode. He jerked the weapon to the side and fired to cut through a trio of bots as he made his way to the main security station.
“Wolfson, sir, are you there?” a voice crackled over the comms.
“Aye, report,” Wolfson ordered and charged the gauntlet as he rushed at a droid that approached a wounded initiate. He pounded the gauntlet into the back of the robot and the energy surged and careened the bot into the wall of the technician’s dorm over forty yards away.
“I’m having trouble making contact with all available security,” the guard explained as the security head helped the initiate up and turned to fire at any approaching enemy and give the student time to escape.
“They’ve done something to the network,” he explained. “Professor Laurie is working on it as well as trying to take care of that big bastard in the sky. How were you able to get hold of me?”
“I have to connect directly to your signal, sir,” the man replied. “I can’t even get a team line going. The connection simply won’t hold.”
“Then reach out to every security team leader individually. Tell them that the students' safety is priority and all weapons are clear.” Wolfson walked up to half an Arbiter droid that crawled toward him along the ground and crushed its head with a violent stamp of his boot. “And bring up Commander Sasha’s signal and connect me to him if you can.”
“Right away, sir. He’s actually pinged his signal since this attack began. One moment.”
Sasha drew a deep breath where he leaned up against the wall and finished binding the wound across his ribs seconds before his comm sparked to life. “Sasha, where the hell are you?” Wolfson demanded.
The commander looked at the lifeless bodies of the Nexus board members. His gaze settled on the corpses of Victoria and Vincent, who had killed the other members in the name of the Arbiter Organization and attempted to kill him. The fact that he was hurt but still breathing while they both had several new holes indicated that they had failed.
“Wolfson, the board is dead,” he stated, glanced at the locked door behind him, and gestured for Isaac to unlock it. “Victoria and Vincent killed them, but I was able to return the favor before they could kill me. And from what I was told, Chancellor Durand may be as well.”
Chapter Eleven
“The board is dead?” Wolfson muttered and the implication of the words wasn’t lost on him. “And by two of their— Damn it!” Before he could finish the thought, a loud blast erupted almost a hundred yards behind him near the medics’ dorm. “Are you in any danger, Sasha?”
“I was,” the commander stated and approached the locked boardroom door. “Although I may be in one of the safest places in the entire school right now if what Isaac is showing me is true.”
“Then do your job and show the students to your little safe place,” the security head snapped and vented his cannon. “More hostiles are dropping with each passing minute—make that each second. We need backup.”
Sasha tried to open the door but was met by a muffled beeping and flashing red light. “I’m currently locked in the meeting room,” he replied, while Isaac immediately set to work accessing the door. “Once I’m out, I will authorize the activation of all Guardian and Soldier bots on campus. I assume Durand himself has yet to do so because—”
“He may be dead.” Wolfson finished, closed the vent, and descended into a tunnel leading to the docks.
“I had hoped he was simply preoccupied with his own attack, but his death is a real possibility,” Sasha agreed. “I’ll head to his office personally and focus on defending and evacuating the students and personnel.”
“We’re on it as much as we can be, but the comms are scrambled and the emergency tunnels won’t open,” the security head stated and blasted a path through more arbiter droids. “I’m heading to the docks to open the ship bays and get the shuttles and boats prepped for evac. But we need those tunnels, Sasha. Find out what is jamming them.”
“I assume it’s the same thing that is messing with the comms and the warning systems that should have let us know about the unidentified ship headed toward our Academy,” the commander retorted. “I’ll let you know more once I have access to the Chancellor’s console. Until then, Laurie and his team will have to do the best they can on their side. The normal rank structure has mostly disintegrated. We are in charge now, Wolfson.”
“Professor!” Cyra shouted to Laurie to warn him of the approaching bots that had made their way into the structure through a maintenance system. He, however, did not look up from the dozen or so monitors he scanned through. Instead, he held a gloved hand up and a small white orb activated on a desk across from him. He gestured with his hand and the orb drifted away. She watched it disappear into a small hatch in the ceiling in the outside hallway. After a few more seconds, a large explosion was followed by a loud sizzle, then silence. She looked at the radar on her tablet as the red dots winked out almost as one.
“Cyra, I need you to head to the main offices and help to establish communication links and internal defenses,” the professor requested, shut off all the monitors, and moved briskly toward the door. “I’ll head up to my lab.”
“Did you find the virus responsible, sir?” she asked and tried to keep pace with him. He moved at an unusually rapid pace for a man who spent most of his life in a chair behind a desk.
“I don’t believe it’s a simple virus,” he replied and chewed a thumb as multiple thoughts raced through his mind. “Some kind of jamming device or relay is more likely. You’ll have to find workarounds for now until we can destroy it.”
“Is there a way to access it? Shut it down or hack it?” she asked, her hand poised near her pistol should another group of droids break in.
“I doubt that would be a better option than simply destroying it. Almost all jamming d
evices are basically the blunt instruments of technological warfare. They can shut down your opponent’s tech but they also shut yours down. But their droids, ships, etcetera, are all working perfectly. This is something I’m not too familiar with.” He spoke the last part with irritation. “It would be best to take an approach that Wolfson would advocate. I’ll try to locate it and I’ll need someone on the outside to eliminate it. Until then, you will need to find workarounds and defenses against the signal.” He held an arm out and a holographic bracer appeared, which he ran along Cyra’s tablet. “That should get us some order in this chaos for now.”
“What do you need in your lab, Professor?” she asked and stopped at the elevator as Laurie headed for the stairs. “I can retrieve it while—”
“I’m trusting you with this while I focus on the other big problem we have.” The door to the stairs slid open while he pointed a finger above. “Look at the sky. You can’t miss it.”
“Hey, Julio, turn it up!” a patron shouted and received an irate grunt from the barkeep.
“What do you want me to turn up, your midday soap operas? The monitor is basically only for ambiance anyway.”
“Julio, are you blind, man?” another asked. He looked at him with confusion and frustration and finally noticed the dozens of customers all but glued to the monitor screens. “Look! The Nexus Academy is under attack by a droid army.”
“What?” He snatched up the main monitor control and increased the volume on every working monitor.
“The attack continues as more capsule-shaped devices fall from the carrier above onto the Ark Academy island,” the reporter stated in a voice that tried to maintain a professional calm, but tension and concern still bled through. Behind him, the newsreel displayed a scene of chaos as more pods continued to land not only on the island but also at the edges of the town behind. “Right now, Nexus has not sent out any messages and no one can make contact. Bellevue police have attempted to assist in stopping the attackers, but a number of the droids have turned their attention to the nearby city. Whether this is as a second front of the invasion or simply to keep the police force occupied, we cannot tell at this time.”
Invasion (Animus Book 10) Page 5