Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 202: New Mission

But before Jace got a chance to speak to her there was a beeping and he immediately opened the channel as it showed that Isaiah was attempting to communicate with him. "Spectre Jace, I have your next mission."

"Should I pull my squad into the channel?" Jace asked and looked to the sky just in time to see a ship that was in orbit explode. It was an enemy, he could tell because he could see the trails of weapons fire hitting the exploding ship.

"Negative. I want you to air on the side of caution in case you have traitors in your midst. Your squad was formed mostly at the behest of the military and government councils requests." Isaiah answered with a grunt.

"Understood sir. What is our mission?" Jace asked as he walked to the edge of the pathway and looked down to see the fighting in the area had just about ceased. There was one pocket that was disarmed. But Jace watched them get executed but Ulin as she walked around. She waved at him when she noticed him looking her way.

"You will be leading the infiltration unit to enter the Elder’s Plateau. I am already sending a full force of units through one side. But I need another unit to get in from the back and make sure they do not escape. We unfortunately cannot get close with our ships from the sky. But Human transports prove useful in this situation. I will leave the bulk of the planning up to you. I am supplying you with three of your hoverbikes and the transport you used earlier. You will have to fly it yourself though, I have a need for the pilots." Isaiah explained and then Jace received a highly encrypted message and began decrypting it. They were his official orders.

"Yes sir. When should I expect them to be delivered?" Jace asked as he looked out at the battlefield.

"Now, get to the fifth level of the pathway. They will be up there when you get there." Isaiah informed him before disconnecting from the channel.

Jace sighed and sent a message to all of his squad as he walked to one of the ramps that led up wards. It would take them a few minutes to get up there. When he arrived it was just in time to see a Victorium transport leaving. While the hover bikes and the transport they flew in on were placed perfectly next to each other.

Jace walked onto the transport and sat in the pilot’s seat, doing a system check to make sure everything was operating correctly. A few minutes later he could see the rest of his new squad walking towards him, the transport, and the hoverbikes.

He walked out of the transport as he looked at the eight others. He forgot that one of their squad members had been injured. As he looked through his heads up display he realized it was actually the person designated as his squad member.

"Vana, Charlie, and Ulin you will be riding on those hover bikes with your partners. The rest of you get on the transport." Jace informed them. "I will brief you on the mission as we go on route."

"That is not how the Victorium does things." A Mar’talic, who had the label Wicker on his friendly tag designation, spoke up before Jace could walk back onto the transport.

Jace turned to them, "Welcome to Cerberus Squad, now follow my orders or get left behind." Jace gave no room for questions or disagreement as he walked toward the pilot seat and sat down. "Vana, Charlie, and Ulin I have given you all coordinates for our destination. Before you set off make sure Vana knows how to use the hover bike."

There was a rumble as the transport fired and started hovering over the ground. He turned back to see that the two accompanying him were on board. "What do you want us to do?" The Ola asked as he moved to close the transport’s side door.

Jace pointed at two mounted harnesses hanging at the roof. "Strap in with those. You might have to shoot out the side doors in a few minutes. If you do not have something to connect the harness to, then just adjust the length and wrap it round your body and attach it to itself." Jace informed them as he began flying the transport just over the fifth level of the pathway.

He swayed the ship and saw the hover bikes were picking up speed. Then he flew alongside of the pathway, staying low to the ground. Going just over the buildings. "We are going in two units to our destination. One on the ground, the other in their air. You will infiltrate via the lower structure, you will encounter far more resistance but those of us in the ship will provide covering fire until you enter. Then while you climb up as quickly as you can to the main structure we will go in through the front door." Jace explained.

"What about prisoners or anyone that surrenders?" Vana asked over the channel.

"I doubt they would surrender, we are outnumbered massively. So do not bother with prisoners. Our main targets are the individuals that call themselves Elders, our secondary mission targets are all Requiem or Ancestor technology." Jace explained as the first of the resistance appeared ahead of them.

A pair of attack space craft that appeared to be similar to the Victorium design but were clearly bastardized. Jace tapped a few buttons and then was flying just ahead of the hover bikes before he began firing a barrage of bullets from the transports built in cannons.

The noise was loud as the bullets bounced off of the attack craft’ shields as they were flying straight towards the transport. A panel in the pilot’s area indicated that the enemy’s weapons were heating up. A good indicator they had learned meant that they were preparing to fire.

The transport flew to the side as he flew away, taking a direct course for the destination and keeping the attack craft focused on him. He could hear a yelp in the back coming from the Tacole as he veered.

"You know that we are not used to this ship’s rough manner of flight, so it might be nice for us to get used to it first." The Tacole pointed out as Jace made a maneuver to dodge the masses of plasma that were fired at him.

"Get used to it and quick, I have two enemies on our tail. Using a version of an attack craft I have not seen before. Take a look and tell me if there are any flaws or anything else that might be of use against them." Jace asked them as he kept watch on where those masses of plasma landed.

He watched them hit a building. The masses of plasma exploded into a large area. He could see the buildings melting as the plasma burnt through just about everything. Then after a few moments it stopped.

Jace frowned and climbed rapidly to avoid another barrage of plasma masses. He may not know what it would do to a shield but he had a feeling for some reason that it would be worse. But he did have a way to check to confirm his suspicions.

He flew towards their destination on a straight path, speeding up for a few moments to keep out of the attack craft’s range and then slowed down just as he was about to arrive at the bottom of the Elder’s Plateau. The attack craft fired another volley and Jace pulled up just before the plateau. "There!" The Ola called from the back, "I see a weakness in their design. Just as and a few seconds after they fire those ships lose their shields."

Jace nodded absentmindedly, taking in that information as he looked out the window to see what the plasma masses would do against the enemy blockade and door they were guarding. The fifth level of the pathway led right into the building. But it appears that they had set up an armed blockade at all levels. The only reason he was not shot out of the sky was that he surprised them.

But what surprised them even more was the plasma masses that their allies fired. It made contact with the top blockade and he could see almost what looked like a spark as the mass of plasma came in contact with shielding. It then spread rapidly and appeared to almost double in size and spread as it began burning through both the door and then the pathways.

Jace frowned as he started flying away. The plasma would eventually burn out when they arrived but they would still have to jump the gap as the pathway had been melting through. The good news was that all those enemies were quickly dying.

"I have an idea, get ready to fire at those enemy craft and just in case. Switch off your armor’s personal shielding if you got it and get as close to the edge of the open side door as you can." Jace instructed as flew upwards slightly, but keeping low enough that he was still below the plateau.