Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 73: Road to More Training

Jace moved one of the chess pieces on the holographic board then glanced around the spacious hangar that was filled with people. Across from him Taylor was thinking about her move while she fiddled with a device she made while they were playing. They were playing a game of chess while they made new tools. Testing their mental prowess in a competition like this was not unfamiliar to them. freeweɓnovel.cøm

They had done similar things at the academy. Of course then they would always make small trinkets. Mostly due to not having the parts to spare. But now they had parts in abundance since the military was gladly footing the bill.

Jace was making an armored defense drone that could be theoretically easily controlled by a simple remote. It would hover and was equipped with a short range taser. Only simple things since this was a spur of the moment creation. Jace glanced at the board after Taylor moved and took only a second to move another piece.

Taylor took a moment to focus on the board again, clicking her tongue in annoyance at Jace moving so quickly. She was making a much smaller drone that would theoretically be versatile and have many uses.

Jace took the moment when she was focused on the board to look at the swarm of new people. The ship was almost completely maxed out on its occupancy as all the candidates for the Tartarus Project were aboard along with the Wing of Pegasus' full crew. He had met many of the candidates and realized they were diverse in their fields of interest.

At the moment they were in warp toward their destination. Warp travel was typically along set pathways that ran through and between star systems. It required a warp bubble and shields to easily function as smoothly as this ship did when it went into warp.

Now most people were either getting familiar with one another or doing odd things like Jace and Taylor were doing. Although they did end up with a bunch of spectators. Both part of the ship crew and other candidates who were just as curious about what they two were building as they were about their game of chess.

"All crew and guests, standby for transition to faster than light. It is unnecessary to strap yourselves in but be aware there will be a slight lurch as we transition. Transitioning in 3...2…1." A woman's voice came over the speaker system throughout the ship. Both Jace and Taylor frowned and shared a look as there was a slight lurch before the ship was stable again.

Faster than Light travel was less limited since it would be going through space that lacked pathways for warp travel. But it was less reliable since adjustments had to be made to avoid debris. It was the first form of high speed space travel that humans developed before they learned about warp travel from other species.

But traveling in both warp and faster than light was not possible. There had been attempts and they all ended in failure since there was no way to make a stable pathway like warp travel already had. So for them to be traveling in both meant that the Vexical Empire had created a third form of travel and held off on reporting the finding.

Not to mention they only switched over after half a day in warp travel. That meant that their destination was possibly so classified that the majority of the military and nobility in the Vexical Empire did not know about it. Because someone high up the food chain had to really be holding their cards close to their chest. Meaning there was a good chance that either someone acting on the Emperor's orders or the Emperor himself was keeping this hidden.

From the file he read, Jace figured it might actually be both. He really had to be planning something big if he was going out of his way to prepare an elite force for covert operations without the nobility's consent. Jace had a feeling he and the other candidates would be at the center of almost every plan for the next few years.

It was not a hope, but a feeling. Although somewhere inside of him he felt a hint of excitement at getting into more fights that could end up being more difficult than the fight with the Tacole General or more bloody than the fight with those pirates working for Tyranus. After a moment of wonder he turned his attention back to the board and moved another piece putting Taylor in check.

"Shit." Taylor took a deep breath as she really focused on the board. "What do you think? How did they get Warping and Faster than Light travel to work together? Some sort of new technology?"

"Hmm… I am thinking of a variation on the shielding which is why this ship has stronger shields in the first place. They are probably brute forcing their way through. After all, the experimental shields were having problems keeping it together in the test flights from what the public records showed." Jace turned back to his drone as he started making the final touches on the anti-gravity components.

"Check!" Taylor called out and Jace quickly moved his queen pulling him out of check and putting Taylor in check again. "Damnit."

Jace clicked a button on his drone and it started hovering. He then used his wrist communicator to control it and had it move around a bit. Testing it quickly as he confirmed his theoretical design was satisfactory. "Six games. Four wins, two losses." Jace stated and looked over at Taylor who was pouting.

"Yeah you win this time." Taylor confirmed, "I was having trouble with microelectronics again. I really need to get better with them."

"Honestly, drone tech is not my forte but I think I have it figured out pretty easily." Jace told Taylor as he packed up the chess board. "But I think that is enough relaxing, time to get serious." He controlled the drone to land on the table between them. "What do you think we should design this as? The military already has basic drones, and surveillance drones, but it lacks decent combat drones."

"Yeah well this is basically a giant target so… maybe not. How about a mobile storage unit?" Taylor pointed out getting a frown from Jace, "if we flush out the design we could have storage for smaller equipment that needs to be kept cool or clean."

"Okay, then we swap the extra armor for reflective paneling. I actually wanted to try mixing stealth technology with the new anti-gravity technology I have." Jace nodded as he started thinking about it. "But let's not insert an artificial intelligence this time. I think it would be better if we have it running on silent programming so it can follow and do other basic actions without assistance."

"Okay then we need to get a basic program that-" As Taylor was responding there was a notification on all of the wrist communicators. Or rather only most of them, only the candidates for the Tartarus Project were sent messages.

[Sergeant Jace Steel,

Report for training in the East Side of the Main Hangar in five hours. You are to pack all personal items in a bag and leave it on your assigned bunk. Then you will retrieve equipment labeled S-set Survival Training Bag as well as an Orbital Drop Spacesuit from the storage. When you report to duty you should be wearing basic beige fatigues under your Orbital Drop Spacesuit. There should be NO personal items on your person no matter how small.

Report to the infirmary within an hour of receiving this message for an immediate medical assessment and System recording.

Good Luck!]

The message was unlabeled which was a breach of normal protocol. All messages had to have a sender and receiver tied to it for security reasons. Only reason he could think that they would be allowed to withhold their name ist that the person giving the orders is high up the food chain that they can ignore those protocols or circumvent them.

Jace looked up at Taylor, "I have to immediately go to get a workup at the infirmary how about you?"

Taylor shook her head, "mine is in an hour and then I have to pick up my equipment, an A-set Survival Training Bag and Orbital Drop Spacesuit." Taylor confided getting an odd look not just from Jace but from one of the spectators who also got a message.

"Wow, mine is in two hours with a B-set Survival Training Bag and a high altitude parachute kit." The spectator scratched his head in confusion. "Did I get the wrong one?"

"No," Jace frowned. "We are going to be dropped from different altitudes as part of our survival training." Jace then nodded at the other candidates who were looking at their messages on their devices. "Have people group up between Orbital Drop, High Altitude and whatever else there is. Pass the message around to anyone else you see." Jace then hopped out of his seat, "you got this Taylor?" He pointed at the drone and the mess they made.

Taylor responded by giving a thumbs up in response. Jace raced off to get ready, hopefully everyone else would show up early as well.