Jace whistled as he put the last of the explosives in place before stepping out of the armory. This time there were a few guards but he did not really care about leaving a mess. There was not much they could do now. They were too busy trying to keep the enemy’s ships off of them.

He managed to overhear who was attacking them. Apparently it was a variety of enemies. Three different ships were attacking. One of them was a group of mercenaries in a hobbled together craft. Another was a battleship from Mars that had been secretly taken over by rebels. Then the last one was an ancient space craft that was outfitted with weapons.

Each of them on their own could not do much. But all three together were putting up enough of a fight that they had to be careful. Which was good for him because it meant they would be sufficiently distracted.

He walked down a few halls until he arrived at an airlock and he pulled open the panel. Then he began cutting and connecting some wires before he grabbed the panel and clicked a few buttons. Using the ship’s systems to send a basic message using ones and zeroes. Telling Cain of the location according to the view outside of the ship.

After he sent the message he sent a message on a certain frequency. When he did the ship was rocked by several explosions and he could hear her in the distance as the explosives he set up went off. The moment it did he materialized his armor and pulled one of the radio channels and started recording the data that was being sent.

The data that was being sent was the compacted data of the navigational data. Jace had set up a system in the backup bridge to send all of the data from the navigational systems onto an open broadcast. Hopefully they would not notice it for a while. But he would not risk it in case they discovered his trick.

Ka-Chink!

Jace looked over at the airlock to see a ship had docked and then the airlocked opened. He smirked as he saw a few people waiting for him. He walked through the airlock. "Okay now that we are-"

"Neighhh!" Jace spun around and barely moved out of the way as a horse bounded past him. He blinked in surprise as he recognized the horse. But then he frowned when he saw who was on the back of the horse. He went to reach for a gun but realized he had not materialized one.

Then the woman in the metal on the mask spoke quickly. "Myself, Catherine Hex and my subordinate West request Asylum with the Victorium!"

"Umm..." Victor looked over at Jace whose body movement showed clear annoyance after the woman spoke. "I do not know the Victorium’s rules but does that mean...?"

"It means she is staying with us." Jace answered with a sigh as he moved to an airlock. "In fact it means they are both staying with us." He went to the panel on this side of the airlock connection and went to close it when a laser pistol was shoved in his face.

Jace just materialized his magnus revolver and fired it at the man’s head. There was an explosion of blood and before the body could fall, Jace kicked it in the chest and sent it flying back into the other ship. Then he closed the airlock.

"Who was that?" Victor asked with a chuckle.

Jace just shrugged, "I don’t remember. Cain, take us away from Prima Terra. I sent you the location of an abandoned shipbuilding facility. We are going there first, I need to put some extra touchups on the ship."

"Understood. When you get the chance. Can you check my programming? I believe I am suffering the machine equivalent of a mental breakdown." Cain informed him and Jace raised an eyebrow before turning to the other members of his crew. The ship barely rocked as an explosion hit the imperial ship he just departed.

"I will be up in a few moments. Did Shilla get the stuff I sent?" Jace asked as he started moving through the ship. It was not that large. But they would make it work.

"She did. She, K, and Crystal are all in the infirmary undergoing stabilized mutation." Victor explained. "She said we only had enough for three. She also said you had a theory on why it happened? Is that true?"

"I do. But that is something we can discuss once we get away from this battlefield." Jace told them as he climbed up a ladder to get to the bridge.

—------------------

The prince stood on the bridge. "Why is this taking so long?" He demanded in annoyance. Their firepower and shielding was better than the rebels. They should have already been dispatched.

"We are undermanned. We over extended ourselves by trying to take the planet back and the other ship is a Luna getting repairs done." One of the bridge crew explained quickly. Fearing the prince’s wraith.

"Well then-"

"Sir! The brig! The people we have been keeping in the brig have broken out. Sherlock is pursuing Gladiator!" Another of the bridge crew announced in a panic.

The prince growled before spinning around. "We are going to-"

BOOM!

The prince was knocked off his feet and out of the bridge as flames and shrapnel engulfed the bridge. Killing most of the crew instantly. The prince looked over in shock before frowning. "Get the backup bridge set up."

"It automatically activates when the main bridge is destroyed." One of his guards that was standing near him assured him. "Should we call for the Archivist?"

"No." The prince growled out. He then marched in the direction of the backup bridge. "Send half of my guards to deal with the dissidents aboard the ship."

—----------------

West pulled up Catherine onto the back of the horse with her. Catherine hummed. "What is the plan exactly? Because you said we could get to him without him harming us. But I thought we were going the route of seduction."

West scoffed. "That won’t work. I think he is the person his country sends in to seduce others." She informed her boss before patting the horses sides with her feet and softly grabbing its mane as it started to gallop through the corridors of the ship. They had to just barely duck their heads so they would not hit them on the roof. "Where are we going?"

"Up here and to the right." Catherine answered. "Gladiator planted two bombs already and the third one will be near his exit."

"Bombs for what?" West asked in surprise.

"For destroying the bridge. He wants to destroy the bridge to get the sealed navigational data." Catherine explained and West made a sound of confusion loud enough because she started explaining. "He probably has something set up on the backup bridge which was unguarded to send him data. So once the main bridge is destroyed and the backup bridge is activated, it starts sending him the information he came to retrieve."

"How do you know?"

"Because that is the standard operating procedure of the classified division of the Vexical Military and Intelligence division." Catherine began explaining. "First you cause mass casualties as a distraction, then you steal the information just before or as you make your escape."

Boom!

They watched a door blow off the doorway it was inside of in the distance. "Turn right here!" She told West and West directed Colonel to the right and into a corridor that had an airlock. One which appeared to be open. All three of them ducked their heads as the horse galloped into the airlock and onto another ship.

West redirected the hose and steadied it as Catherine spoke. Then she blinked in surprise as Sherlock appeared at the doorway. He must have been following Gladiator. She then watched as Jace dismissed the man with not even a word as he did that thing to make a gun appear in his hand before firing and killing Sherlock, turning his head into mist. Then kicked his body and sent him flying back into the ship they just left from before closing the door and walking away.

As they started dispersing she looked to the side to see one of the people from before. But this time without his helmet on. He was the one wearing monk style armor. "Come on, you two. I will show you where you will be staying." He helped them off the horse before leading them away as the big chitin covered creature started patting the horse which was left behind.

"Was that a Xenar?" Catherine asked as they walked.

"I guess, at least that is what Gladiator calls them." The man answered.

"You are a vampire aren’t you?" She then asked.

"That is correct. Although I am a bit different from any you might have seen in this system." The man answered. "You can call me Victor."