“They are heading to Terra, you say?” he enquired and thoughts began to form in his mind. “Remind me—how many ships do we have?”
“We have acquired fourteen WC military vessels. Along with the organization’s personal ships available, we have a total of forty-two battleship or higher-class ships available.”
“How many ships are currently circling Terra?” he asked.
“The last report was that there are currently a hundred and eleven, sir,” she stated. “Merrick’s agent Dario has already begun the destruction sequence.”
The chancellor chuckled as he put the glass onto the nightstand beside his bed and stood. “He got right on that, didn’t he? Usually, he likes to play around more.”
“He might be close to being overwhelmed at this point,” the aide suggested. “The cramped quarters of the building have provided an advantageous position for the droids, but ever since the arrival of the research ship Galileo which had an entire compartment filled with weapons and devices specifically designed for automated combat, the tides have slowly turned. Not to mention the sheer enormity of numbers on the other side now that all the ships have begun to return.”
“Let them keep throwing bodies if they want to,” Damyen retorted and strode out of the room. His aide followed and snatched his jacket up on the way out. “Whether they die now or later is of little consequence to us. But I see an opportunity.” He took the jacket from her and put it on. “Get me in contact with the leaders of the fourth and fifth. We could get a few more ships out of this if we play it right. There’s no use in all of them going down in flames.”
“Eckles, mech!” Haldt shouted and forced the pilot’s head down as the vanguard bolted to his feet and activated a shield in the same moment that the mech fired its cannon. The shield blocked it but shattered and hurled the two security officers and the three pilots with them back.
“Shit!” Haldt cursed, scrambled up, and helped the others before they ran off while the mech charged another shot. “Corrin, is the path clear?”
“It is,” the piloted responded over the comms. “Were you able to find the stragglers?”
“Of course we did.” The group rounded the corner and crept through one of the back doors into the logistics workshop in an effort to avoid the mech. “Believe it or not, it was easier escorting the fifteen of you than the three of them.”
“The mech stopped moving. It’s simply standing there and looking around,” Eckles whispered as he peered cautiously out of the door. “I don’t think it will be easy to give it the slip.”
Haldt activated the map in his HUD. “We could cut through the building, dammit. That would put us in the center of the plaza— wait, this is the logistics workshops, right?” Eckles and the pilots nodded and he scanned the map. “Chiyo, come in.”
“I’m here, Officer Haldt,” she responded. “The first ships have already been sent out. I see pilot Corrin and a squad coming in through the eastern entrance but I don’t see you,”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m calling about,” he admitted. “I need you to take control of tower cannon three and turn it west toward the logistics workshop. You should see a mech.”
“Should I destroy it?” she asked.
“If you would be so kind.” No sooner had the request been made than they heard four large blasts rocket into the mech. Parts shattered and skidded across the ground from the power of the strikes. “Much appreciated. Do you mind walking us over to the entrance from here?”
“It would be for the best as it appears those shots garnered a fair amount of attention. The cannons have been quite helpful but they are also prime targets. One, four, and six have already sustained moderate to heavy damage.”
“It looks like we won’t be able to rely on them for much longer,” Eckles bemoaned.
Chiyo frowned and scanned the different feeds that showed that more and more of the campus was filled with droids and enemy soldiers rather than students and faculty. “We won’t be able to stay here much longer either.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Wolfson, we’re all loaded,” Kaiden called from the back of the ship. “Get your ass in here.”
“Easier said than done right now, boyo,” the man roared as he continued to fire into the ranks of droids. Luke pounded the hammer down and a wave of energy erupted and forced the mechanicals back as metal bodies careened into their counterparts.
The ace looked back when the six officers all rushed out to help. He took one of the shotguns that protruded from the cases and joined them, holding onto the railing as he ushered them back onboard and obliterating any bot that came too close. “Chief, take us up.”
“Got it, partner,” the EI acknowledged and the ship began to hover above the platform.
“Turn and blast the bastards while you’re at it,” Wolfson ordered.
“I can do that too.” The rear door began to close. Wolfson and Kaiden moved to the cockpit as the ship spun and released a barrage at the bots that continued to fire. A few tried to leap onto the retreating craft but the security head took manual control even before he was fully seated. The sudden acceleration toppled Kaiden, along with some of the others who had yet to make it to their seats.
“Good timing, Kaiden,” the giant said and slowed slightly when they were more than halfway across the bay. “So good that I won’t even be angry you took my ship without asking me.”
“Hey, I tried,” the ace muttered as he stood and moved to take the co-pilot’s chair. “Chief couldn’t establish a connection with your comm.”
“I guess I lost it in all the fuss.” Wolfson chuckled and banked the vessel to head back toward the island. “I saw the guns your friends had—stopped by my gym, did you?”
“I made a quick pass through and was worried when I didn’t see you there. You’re always so sluggish in the mornings.” Kaiden looked out the window at the destruction of the Academy. Several buildings collapsed and fires blazed on the right side of the island and through the docks. One of the tower cannons shorted out as several droids fell from it. “There will be a ton of work to repair it all when we reclaim it.”
The head officer looked at his student and simply nodded in acknowledgment. “It’s good to see you’re still you through all of this.”
“Did you think I would roll over for these assholes? I ain’t gonna let them have that win.”
Wolfson smirked. “You still had one year left but you’ve already learned the most important lesson for a soldier.”
“You drilled it into me in the first couple,” the ace responded and leaned into the console. “We need to head back to the hangar. Chiyo and a few officers are still there.”
“Are there no more pilots to get her out of there?” the giant asked.
“More are coming but I’d rather she was with me,” Kaiden stated and the pilot simply nodded once again. “Fair’s fair. You saved my ass so I should help you save your— What the hell is going on?”
The two men leaned forward as several of the pods the bots had arrived in began to ascend into the sky. “They weren’t only landing pods?”
The head officers hold tightened on the control. “Sasha said the droids threw captured students into the pods.”
“And they are heading back up—” He followed the trail of the vessels as they ascended to the colossus. “Shit.”
“The first retrievals are on the way, sir.” Nolan nodded to the technician.
“And the codex and Master EI?” he asked.
“The second team has been sent in, along with all bots in the sector to back them up. Whoever killed the first team will not leave alive.”
The general leaned back in his chair. His mind had begun to slide into paranoia. What if they had already taken the codex and Master EI? Maybe the Academy had cut their losses and destroyed or deleted both to stop them from getting their hands on it. He drew a sharp breath and forced the feeling from his mind. No, he couldn’t entertain the doubts—not now when he still had so mu
ch to complete. He would not fall to his neurosis again or let Merrick down.
“We should be prepared on the off-chance that they are unable to be retrieved,” he stated and stood. “We have the professor’s personal EI. Assuming Lena doesn’t completely rewrite it, we should be able to use it to access the Academy’s systems once the dust has settled. Make sure that they do not destroy the mainframe chamber. We’ll need every trace of information that we can get.” With that, the general left the bridge and directed his steps to the lab to check on Lena’s progress.
When he arrived, over a dozen scientists and technicians were gathered around the monitor Lena was working on. Above them floated the cube she had arrived with, suspended in a tubular chamber.
“Lena? How is it coming along?” he asked and the group dispersed as he approached.
She didn’t look up from the monitor and her fingers tapped madly on the keyboard. “It’s been rather exciting—much more than I initially believed it would be,” she replied. “I’m putting her back together now.”
“Back together?” Nolan asked and stared anxiously at the cube. “You destroyed her?”
“It would be better to say unraveled,” she corrected and took only a moment to glance quickly at the general before she turned her gaze to the cube. “She fought me the entire time and I had to take her code apart. It was basically bifurcating her artificial body to get her inside the cube. I’m putting her back together while the cube rewrites her. It’s a much faster process.”
“Then she’ll be ready soon?” he asked.
Lena shrugged and one shoulder jutted when she craned her neck. “I hope so. I haven’t had the time to familiarize myself with this device.”
The general raised an eyebrow but kept his voice neutral despite the surprise. “Merrick told me that you use these to make our EIs.”
“I use a different version. Besides, it is one thing to intertwine parts of EIs together, and another entirely to perfectly deconstruct and reconstruct an EI that was created by and the personal project of the creator of EIs.”
Nolan eyed her warily before he walked to the side of the chamber to observe the cube from a different angle. “That sounds like you are preparing an excuse.”
She stopped typing and stared at the general, her expression calm. “I’ll have it ready soon. Laurie may be a genius, but he is not the only one.”
He nodded and allowed a small grin to appear on his face. “Keep that confidence. I’m sure Merrick would approve.”
Unsurprisingly, she made no reply and simply returned to her work. The general turned his attention to the rest of the staff. “The rest of you, get the pods ready. We’ll have new recruits soon. Top-of-the-line, in fact.”
“Does that mean we have the requirements ready, General?” one of the technicians asked.
Nolan approached him and linked his hands behind his back. “We have yet to acquire them but they aren’t ‘requirements,’ merely preferable. Open the source code and play around with it for the time being.”
The technicians looked at each other. The lead, whose tag read Keller, stepped forward. “Sir, trying to begin the process with simple guesswork could lead to irreparable damage to the subjects. If not outright death, mental shutdowns would be the most likely result.”
He nodded and considered it carefully. “For now, get them in the pods and keep them in the system. We’ll focus on retrieving the codex and Master EI, but if it comes down to it, I believe we can spare a few for you to experiment with.” He walked away from the team and toward the door. “We’ll need more soldiers soon.”
When Flynn awoke, it wasn’t for long. His mind drifted between reality and darkness and he blinked several times. Confused, he looked aroundbut all he could see were dark-blue lights. They seemed oddly familiar. He closed his eyes and opened them again. Now, the lights were white and almost blinded him. He heard a hum around him and a familiar feeling enveloped him as he leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them once again, he realized that he was all alone and suspended in darkness.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Sasha was able to force the door to Animus Hall Seven open sufficiently to place both hands on one side and push. It took effort but he managed to create a gap wide enough for him to enter. He was guided only by the enhanced vision of his visor as he walked into the bowels of the facility. In front of him were large racks, manufacturing lines for parts and armor. He studied them quickly. Most pieces were in various states of assembly, but what unnerved him was that when he looked farther down the lines, he found massive racks with numerous droid units ready to finish their construction.
What they were fighting out there seemed to be only a third of what was possible if they had attacked even a few days later. It reminded him of how often luck and foresight could play into winning a battle.
He heard a few metallic items drop onto the floor behind him and flinched but didn’t immediately turn. Logic warned him that his opponent wouldn’t be so careless and had probably tried to draw his attention. He powered his rifle down and holstered it as he raised a hand to the side of his helmet, turned a dial, and increased the audio input into his headset. Motionless, he listened for the hum of a gun’s core, ragged breathing, or even simply a misplaced step. His opponent was probably above him, using the railings and tall machinery to easily traverse the room. He hadn’t seen any traps so the intruder was probably waiting for the internal defenses to reset to regain his advantage.
As he lowered his hand to his gauntlet in preparation, something clicked behind him and up to the left. The intruder stood between some of the racks and a quick hum confirmed that he primed his weapon. Sasha spun as the sniper fired, raised his arm, and pressed the button he had his hand on to activate a reflector that bounced the shot back. The attacker was quick but it still clipped him enough for him to lose his balance. He fell from the racks and slipped around to land while Sasha drew his pistol, held the trigger down, and fired several shots. He lowered the volume on his helmet with his other hand.
A couple of the shots struck home but didn’t do much as the assailant had apparently been able to get his own gear working as well. His shielding deflected the shots and he turned and delivered a spray of lasers, having either switched weapons or activated his weapon’s full-auto. The commander flipped over one of the assembly lines and hunkered behind it as he holstered his pistol and retrieved his rifle. He rolled quickly behind one of the machines and put himself at an angle to his opponent’s aim. If the enemy wanted a clean shot, he would have to vault the assembly line to reach him. Sasha would easily bet on himself being the quicker shot.
Instead of any attempt to follow-up, the room fell silent as the attacker once again went on the prowl. Sasha looked at the entry and wondered if he would attempt to sneak out and target Cyra and her team, whom he assumed were still reorganizing. More dinging noises interrupted his thoughts, this time from several different directions. The man was trying to distract him. He was about to adjust his audio switch again but hesitated. If his opponent was now aware of that trick, he could simply detonate a small explosion or drop a few of the hanging droid rigs to deafen him while he listened for him.
A click followed by a high-pitched screech indicated that something was coming online. He peered from his cover and quickly raised his rifle to aim at a droid that took aim at him while it hung on the racks above. His shot streaked directly into its unarmored chest and something fell as the mechanical powered down. It looked like a gun and he immediately realized that the attacker had used his gun’s core to briefly power the droid. Shit!
Sasha whirled with his rifle held high as his attacker plunged toward him with a plasma blade in hand. He swiped viciously and caught the blade on the side of his target’s gun barrel. The commander had paid good credits to make sure that the barrel was reinforced in case he had to defend himself at close range, but the heat of the blade still dug into it as they struggled against one another. The attacker drew
back his other arm and a long blade protruded from the top of the limb, but Sasha was quicker. He kneed his opponent in the chest and flipped his rifle as he recovered to batter him in the side of his helmet with the butt of his weapon.
The attacker staggered into the side of the assembly line. Sasha dropped the rifle and drew his pistol once again. He prepared to fire as the attacker reached back with his arm and the weapon rocketed out of the gauntlet. While he tilted his head to avoid it, the blade still cut through the side of his neck. He hissed with pain and anger and as he fought the shock of the deep incision, the attacker turned and flipped his plasma blade to try for the kill. There was no room to maneuver, but he did not intend to fall back. In fact, he let the blade strike him in the chest where his armor was thickest and caught the attacker by the arm, surprising him. He raised a leg and drove it into his knee, still holding onto him as he fell. His breathing a little ragged, he placed the barrel of his gun against his foe’s helmet.
As he was about to pull the trigger, another shot rang out through the hall. It was only a red flash in his HUD—a warning from Isaac that he had identified a new energy signature—that enabled him to tumble out of the way of the shot. When he flung himself back, the first attacker tried to stand and Sasha placed two shots into his helmet. The body crumpled in mid-stride as the commander rolled and readied his rifle as he took cover behind a group of pods.
He looked over to see three new soldiers enter the hall. The one in the middle carried a rifle, which she aimed in his direction. He ducked as she fired and scuttled along the row as he fished out two shock grenades. When he was in sight, he craned his arm back to throw one of them and let the enemy marksman take the shot. It destroyed his shields, which lit up briefly as the shot struck his chest before the energy coalesced into itself and shattered like glass.
Invasion (Animus Book 10) Page 17