Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 201: Stalker?

Jace was ducking behind the corner just as another barrage of lasers and plasma hit the corner he was hiding behind. He looked over at the robots, they were standing clear of the spots they could be hit from. They were just as clearly aware of their own vulnerability as he was.

"Spectre Jace we are over your position now. It looks like you have their attention." He could hear Charlie announce over the communication channel followed by several explosions and the ground shaking.

"Yeah. I think blowing up the thing they were trying to protect was a real annoyance." Jace told her as he peaked out and fired another two shots. The first shard disabled the shield and the second one killed the target. After a few minutes of back and forth he was able to find the weak points in the armor these soldiers were using.

So his first shots were disabling the armor and the second shots were killing the targets. It did make it awkward since each cartridge only had nine shots. So at the end of his cartridge he was able to shoot out one of the enemy’s shields but then they had time while he was reloading for that enemy to back up out of range.

Initially they were hesitant. But by the time they realized his weapon could only shoot so many times before overheating. He had figured out their weak points and it cost them several soldiers.

Now as he could hear explosions and gunfire coming from outside the enemies inside were backing up again. Probably confused by what was going on. He took the opportunity to hit one of them in the back and then kill them as they were retreating.

Then Jace clicked his tongue in annoyance as his plasma shard sniper rifle was out of cartridges. He moved the sniper to his back and pulled out his Pyre. It only had a single magazine left.

But before he could contemplate how to get through the enemy and help his squad the door he had sealed by breaking the panel began to fizzle and then opened slightly. A metal hand then appeared and slammed the door open.

Jace grinned as he walked out the door patting Charlie on the shoulder. "Thanks, now please tell me you brought me some Pyre ammunition." Jace asked as he assessed their landing zone while some regular allied soldiers moved into the building that he just left.

"That and more. I assumed you were done playing with the Victorium technology." She waved at a Victorium transport that was landing in the clearing they had made. "The rest of the squad is cleaning up, executing the Elder soldiers."

Jace tilted his head in confusion. "I suppose that works. How about the cleanup?" Jace asked as he walked into the Victorium transport as the side doors opened up. In the center sat a bundle of weapons and ammunition.

He pulled out his empty Pyre magazines and put them in a box where empty magazines went. "Other soldiers are taking care of it. When you get the chance, the High Priestess wants to berate you for your lack of manners. Your new second in command, Nila, thinks it is hilarious." Charlie explained.

Jace grabbed replacement magazines that were filled with bullets. "Well that is not going to happen. Who is Nila and how is she doing?" Jace asked as he removed the plasma shard sniper rifle from his back and put it on a rack of weapons.

"Nila is an Accer and a former personal guard of the High Priestess and her childhood best friend. She personally requested to be on your squad. Apparently you and her have a past. I did not realize it either but I remember having to read your combat report from Waterswan and realized who she was. Here are some hints. She is missing a hand, one of her swords, and she acquired a magnum at some point." Charlie explained with a chuckle as she replaced one of the magazines for her Wildfire.

Jace frowned under his helmet while he moved to a weapons rack and pulled off a Wildfire along with a few magazines. He then moved to a box labeled specialty ammunition while he put away the Wildfire onto his back. He removed his railgun and replaced the bullets that he had already fired. "You mean the Accer I fought, does she hold a grudge?"

"Negative, just the opposite. Apparently she is your own personal stalker, wants to bear your offspring and everything." Jace stopped what he was doing and looked at Charlie making a face she could not see under his helmet.

Then he sighed and turned back to getting his munitions. Going to another box to grab some explosives. "Well I suppose that is better than her holding a grudge. How well is she doing leading the squad?"

"Good, the rest of the Victorium soldiers seem a bit awkward to have gone from fighting us to working alongside us. But she regaled us with tales of her glorious combat missions where she was bored and was excited to see what we would get involved in." Charlie informed him as she stepped off the ship.

"We will have to get them better acquainted." Jace sighed. He then looked at the squad indicators and began grouping them up. He then sent a quick text message to all of their communication devices.

Charlie sighed as she saw the message. "That is one way to do it. But we do have an odd pair out." Charlie pointed out as she looked at the pairings.

"I know." Jace nodded his head as he walked out of the transport as he walked towards the ramp that would lead to the third level of the pathway. He wanted to take a look at the burning wreck before he left. "I will have that group follow me and my partner."

"I see you also paired up your stalker with the woman you are currently bedding." Charlie pointed out with a chuckle as she noticed.

Jace just shrugged while they arrived at the battle site to see some of their people being given first aid while Nila, who they were just talking about, was moving around the down bodies and executing Elder Council soldiers. He walked past her and looked at the now extinguished wreck of the jamming vehicle.

He slightly flexed his foot and jumped up onto the top of the burning wreckage. He then began moving around melted materials and breaking off bent pieces of debris. A minute later he found what he was looking for and sighed.

"Damn." He cursed under his breath as he crouched down and ran his hands over the damaged Artificial Intelligence cores. He then opened a channel to Solisa, "Solisa I have several damaged Requiem AI cores. They were using them to flood the channels and jam communications. Can you create a counter so they can’t do something like this again?"

"Annoying, yes I can and I suspected as much. I am sure you expected something like that as well. I just need to know what format they did to achieve this. How many of them are still operational?" Solisa asked as he realized he only had a fraction of her focus at the moment.

"A few, I will have the clean up crews and the Requiem AI robots we freed take care of it." Jace told her as he looked over at Nila and Charlie who were talking and waved at the robots that had grouped up behind them.

"They were using Requiem AIs in robots?" Solisa asked as Jace jumped off the destroyed vehicle.

"Affirmative. If I had to guess their name it would be suicide scouts. They lack any form of armor, they can go invisible, and use some type of vibrating gauntlet as a weapon." Jace informed her as walked up to the pair who had started doing a salute. He waved them off and turned to the AI robots. "Hey there are more of your comrades cores on that vehicle. Disconnect them without damaging the set up of how they were jamming us. You will all be going to our ship for assistance and repurposing."

Jace could feel in his mind as they indicated a source of anger and annoyance, not directed at him specifically but at their situation. It was an aspect of his Assist Program ability that went mostly unutilized since he could typically converse with AIs in his language. "Do not worry about your situation. Solisa, another of your commands, is in charge of digital security aboard the Venture. I am sure she will be able to help you when she is not busy helping us kill the group that did this to you." That announcement caused a wave of confusion with some showing curiosity that was bordering on analysis.

"What are we doing?" Charlie asked from the side while Jace turned to her.

"Have the cleanup crew focus on getting this vehicle and the AI robots up to the Venture." Jace informed, she saluted and walked away. Sending out communication messages while he turned to Nila who was nervously shifting.