Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 199: Victorium Pathways
Jace moved through the building after he entered it. It was some type of multiple floored complex. Possibly an apartment building or a building with multiple offices. He arrived at the back door and it slid open without an issue after he pressed a button on the panel next to the door.
He began moving through building after building for several minutes. They were different. But they all shared similar designs. They were smooth with rounded edges. With doors and other functions that were likely supposed to have been automatic. Less than ten minutes later he had to stop as he arrived at the enemy line.
They were moving in groups of five. Some stopped and watched while others moved through buildings, searching everything as they moved. He would have to move past them if he wanted to get to his destination. So it was just about time to see what this camouflage mode could do.
He waited in the building until they reached him. The door slid open and they walked in. He stayed in one of the open rooms. So when the door opened and they looked through the window they did not enter fully or linger. Just a cursory glance was enough for them to determine that it was empty. They then left with the door closing behind them.
Jace waited a few more minutes when he was sure the hallway was empty. He exited the room, opening the door manually and then peeking out of the room. The hallway was empty so he moved to the door that they entered from. It was closed so he used the manual buttons on the panel to open it.
When it slid open he flinched and stepped back and to the side as an Ola was walking up to the door with a few other OIas following him. They stopped as they approached the door. Probably surprised by its sudden opening.
The Ola led the way while the others followed him all of them had their weapons raised and at the ready. They moved through the door. They walked past him, not even giving the spot he was standing at a second thought. Once they were past he moved out of the door and into an open area.
The open area had a number of vehicles, both destroyed and some were still operational. He continued walking for several minutes when he suddenly saw the communication channels all become static noise.
Then a second later he saw it. That line of enemies he passed by was not just the front line. It was reconnaissance for these people. They were moving along the third level of what seemed to be the main pathway for this area. There were five visible levels, with each level segregated into two different paths.
Presumably one going one way and another going the other way. Then there were the ramps leading down from the different pathways. Some were leading down to lower level pathways or to the ground level where there were open spots with vehicles. Others were leading up to higher level pathways and some led from the open spots and other pathways into the various pathways. He was sure navigating such a complex method of movement was a nightmare but effective in eliminating traffic.
But at the moment he was more focused on the vehicles on the third level of this pathway. The front most vehicle was another of those multi wheeled tanks. Right behind that was a vehicle with an open back that had several soldiers in the back of it. It looked like they were relaxing. Because there were several other soldiers in the same armor walking alongside all of the vehicles.
The armor the soldiers were wearing was different from the regular soldiers or the Elite soldiers he had seen. It was just a feeling but Jace figured that they were better, more dangerous. They were wearing armor that was a dark purple. While their weapons were all varied, the weapons all appeared to be some kind of Requiem weapons.
Behind the soldier transport was another large vehicle. It was a slow moving block and was clearly setting the pace for the entire moving convoy. The vehicle had more wheels and was as long as the troop transport. But it had several poles growing out of the roof of the vehicle. Some of them had blinking green and red lights, others had no bright lights. That was definitely the vehicle that was jamming the communications.
Behind the jamming vehicle were another two tanks. Both of them had people moving alongside them. Guarding the tanks and vehicles from enemy attack.
Jace moved up to the third floor of the building he had just left. As he moved through the building he switched his plasma shard sniper rifle with his railgun. When he arrived at the window he took up a position where he could fire at the vehicle with the jamming device.
But before he could even load a bullet into the railgun. He felt something hit him in the side. He flew through the air and slammed into a wall. Dropping the railgun when he was first hit since he did not have a proper grip on the railgun.
He felt the wall buckle under the force that he hit the wall with. Even saw his arms and legs blink on and off as the camouflage was disabled. While the yellow hexagonal pattern lingered over the left side of his midsection where the attack originated from.
He looked over to his attacker. The attacker’s figure blinked in and out when its own camouflage disabled. It seems that their camouflage methods canceled each other out when they came in contact. While the figure itself was humanoid in appearance. It had wires and metal skeletal limbs instead of anything organic. Its head is a single round black ball. While near the center of its body is a metal box with a device that was glowing red on it. He recognized both of those things.
It took him only a moment to realize that this was made using Requiem technology. While the metal box was definitely their version of an Artificial Intelligence storage unit. The glowing red device attached to it, he recognized as the Sima’s control device. These were some of the pieces of Taboo Work that he talked about with the soldiers on the elevator.
He pulled himself up as he processed the amount of force that this thing just put against him. Despite its thin appearance it put in enough force to put him in a momentary daze, which was not easy.
As Jace planned his next move he saw something blink in and out of existence to his right side. He barely had enough time to put up his arm to block the attack. He skidded across the ground as he managed to redirect most of the force that was coming toward him.
A table or desk skidded across the ground behind him as he was pushed into that. But then Jace had to duck again as he could sense another attack coming. This one was in front of him after being pushed away from the second one. While he could still see the first one, meaning there were at least three enemies.
The third one went for a punch straight towards the visor on his helmet. Jace ducked under the attack as he began seeing the outline of electricity. It covered and moved through the robotic opponent.
For a moment he considered draining the robot of all its electricity. But these were likely enslaved AI’s from the Requiem. So it would be better to free them. He closed in toward the latest one to attack him. Pulling out his broken knife he lodged it between the control device and AI’s brain that sat in the center of its body.
With both of his hands inside of the robot he was unable to protect himself as the second one punched him in the side. His armor’s own shielding appeared cracking under the strike while his shoulder flinched from the force pressed against it.
He was part of the way done with the AI enslavement device when his crouch position was forced lower. The first enemy robot had moved behind him and hit downward. Forcing Jace to take a better crouching stance.
The attacks continued from all side’s for the next ten seconds as his armor’s shielding failed first and then he struggled to stay upright. The attacks now going directly against his armor were not doing any visual damage. But Jace was feeling the attacks through his body from the vibrational impact.
Just as he disconnected the first enslavement device he realized the reason behind their strong physical attacks. Their hands were vibrating as they made contact with him, with a shield covering each of their hands.
Jace kicked away the robot he just disconnected the first device from and then moved forward. Dodging the latest blows from the other two robots. Which had begun to take a toll on his actual body, while it had not even registered as damage on his armor.
He jumped toward them, kneeing the second robot in the round head. Sending it flying into the wall and away for the moment. While the first robot punched toward him as he moved through the air. Rather than dodging, Jace grabbed the wrist of the first robot and spun around its body.
Ending with him pinning the robot to the ground while tightly gripping the robot’s arm so it could not attack him while he disconnected the enslavement device.
