Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 475: Marcus Trentwood

Bella pulled herself up and looked around. Spotting K who was similarly without a helmet. K nodded her head then nodded at the metal bars. "Welcome back to being awake. As I am sure you will have noticed we have been imprisoned. By who? Well actually-"

"Shut up!" K looked over at Marcus Trentwood after he slammed the but of her gun against the cage. "Who else? You told me about your boss but that is it. Who else are you expecting?" Marcus demanded in a panicked voice.

K had run into Marcus several times before but all before he left for the scouting mission into the Imperium the first time. But she had heard nothing since receiving her own mission. He was still supposed to be in the Imperium. She was initially shocked when they ran into him in the hangar but he used that moment to knock out Bella with that strange gun on his hip. Then he recognized her and when she let down her guard he knocked her out as well.

Now they were here and K had already informed him about their boss. Even though she trusted him enough to let down her guard. The training ingrained in her had her disabling her and Bella’s communication devices so they could not be used by him. Which seems to have worked because he was interrogating her instead of just outright killing them.

"What’s wrong with his eyes?" Bella asked quietly.

Marcus slammed the butt of his gun into the cage. There were a number of empty cages around. K had realized that the ship was probably smuggling something living over long distances if they had freshly cleaned cages on hand. "What was that?!?" He demanded loudly.

"Captain Ulin is the only one that-" Crack! She did not even have enough time to see it coming before she was smacked in the face by the butt of the gun. She fell back hard and shook off the dizziness as her jaw roared in pain.

"Quiet you damn traitor!" Marcus yelled at her before pointing his gun at Bella. "Who else is with you!"

Bella frowned as she looked back at Marcus. She asked about Marcus’ eyes earlier. That was because they were currently bloodshot. K may not know the exact reason for them being bloodshot. But his mannerisms were currently like someone that was addicted to something. More than likely it was a chemical addiction.

"Why would I tell you-" BANG!

"Arrgghh!" K screamed in pain as a bullet bit into her leg. It tore through her armor like it was nothing. Not even the shielding that was supposed to be active managed to stop the bullet. "Fuck you!" K screamed.

Marcus had clearly gone off the rails. There was no way he was here on behalf of the Union. He was here by himself with no one to back him up.

"Which of those Spectres are nearby? There is no way they set anyone lower ranking than a Spectre. Tell me! Is it Dakota?" Marcus demanded.

Bella looked between K and Marcus before sighing and leaning back in a more relaxed position. "No, Colonel Jace of Cerberus is onsite. But he is more here for observation." Bella answered. K grunted her thanks quietly.

Marcus blinked in surprise and then turned around and walked away while mumbling to himself while also pulling out a pair of books that appeared to be the royal records. K watched in surprise as he easily opened both of them.

K and Bella exchanged a look of confusion but then K leaned over. "He has signs of chemical drug addiction. That might be why his behavior is so erratic as well." K informed Bella who nodded in understanding.

"Hahaha! Of course not! But... if I capture him... I could use him to force Spectre Dahlia Dakota out of hiding. He should be valuable enough to use as a bargaining chip! Especially if they know! Hehehehe!" The cackling was unsettling and definitely not something that they wanted to hear. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

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"What?" Dahlia asked in surprise and bewilderment. That was the last thing she was expecting to come out of Director Fenrir’s mouth. "How is that possible? I thought-"

"They were all dead? That is what everyone wanted people to believe. It would hurt for that bloodline to continue. The political fallout alone would be... disastrous." Fenrir explained as she set aside her empty glass. She was done drinking for the moment it seemed.

Dahlia looked over and saw the High Priestess was unbothered. "You knew?"

The High Priestess blinked and looked over at Dahlia. "Of course," She nodded her head slightly. "It was one of the first things that was told. The higher ranking military and government personnel know so it cannot be used for political gain. Although that would only hold them off for so long."

"What about the Oda Imperial Family? What is their interest in Jace?" Dahlia naked and then added on. "Aside from using him for a claim on a vast region of known space."

"Actually... Jace’s father was a distant member of the Oda Imperial Family." Fenrir informed them. "Aside from that we do not know about the conditions he lived in before moving into the orphanage."

"How? Does the Oda family know?" Dahlia asked, suddenly feeling a lot more interested in her fellow Spectre.

"If they do, they are not going to tell us." Fenrir declared. "While politically he might be the most important person in history. We all know he would not give a damn about-"

She was interrupted by a loud beeping followed by the door opening up and a soldier walking in. Their markings showed them as the communication officer for The Elysium. "I apologize for interrupting. We have received a message from the Cerberus Recon Team." Actually it was the covert operations team. But the officer would not know that.

Dahlia looked over at Fenrir who nodded and stood up. "I will go with you."

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Jace cleared the hall before moving down and stopping just before the hall in front of the double doors. As he moved around the corner he flinched but stopped himself as he recognized Nulltone and Ulin.

Ulin and him nodded at each other before they moved to either side of the double doors with their respective partners behind them. Jace held up a hand then put it on the wall and focused with his senses and on his power.

He could feel the faint electrical signal that was being channeled through the hangar door. He moved around the electricity and the door slammed open. As soon as it opened they spun around the corners and looked into the room.

His eyes momentarily switched over to an electrical vision but when it did he flinched in pain and disabled it when he saw the room was flooded with electricity. It was covering the room. Both the surfaces and in the air. Before he could process how it was even achieved he was rolling forward and dodging a number of gray bolts of energy. The first one slammed into Asher who followed him in.

Asher fell to the ground but the indicator showed his suit was disabled and he was unconscious but otherwise fine.

Jace jumped forward and slid behind a crate. "Take cover!" He called out as Nulltone ducked back behind the door and Ulin slid behind the cage where K and Bella were being held. He looked back out of cover for a moment but had to duck back as another gray bolt slammed into the ground behind him.

It was only for a moment but he spotted him firing a weapon from his position on top of a ship. It looked like it was in the middle of being dismantled for parts when it was abandoned. So there were plenty of metal plates and scaffolding that Marcus could use as cover.

"Marcus Trentwood. I was not aware the Trentwoods had returned from their trip into the Imperium." Jace figured he might as well goad the man into a dialogue to distract him.

"Jace the Spectre. You know I was part of Salem’s squad for a long time. But she rarely talked about you. I thought that was weird. But then I touched it! The source code! It gave me everything I would ever need to learn about anything!" Well that was troubling to hear. Jace fired a barrage of bullets blindly up into the position he last saw Marcus and could hear him speaking from.

"I mean... so many secrets out in the world. But also I now knew the only way to draw one of you Spectres out of formation was to do something drastic. Like get my hands on the Vexical Family Records." Marcus followed it up with a cackle.

"Why in the world would you want to do that? You know we will only kill you." Jace responded.

"No you won’t. You should actually have standing orders to take me alive. I suppose that makes sense. My father and the former emperor, who is very much alive, are good enough friends that the emperor entrusted him with half of the plan to dismantle the former system of nobility."

Well that was definitely not good. It sounds like Marcus has gotten his hands on some heavily classified information. But he used whatever this ’source code’ was.