Space Odyssey: Spectre

Chapter 551: Back-to-Back Calls

Jace and the Colonel burst out of the northern exit of Submundo in a steady gate. Surprising a group of what were likely rebels. But they kept going as Jace only glanced at them. It had only been a few hours but the city looked like chaos with all the trash dumped out into the street and bodies littering the area. Although that might just be the Northern Island.

But as they were riding a shadow passed over them and Jace looked up. "Ah shit." He cursed as he spotted a local military spacecraft flying over him.

"Gladiator, surrender yourself-"

Boom!

There was an explosion as the side of the ship exploded and another craft flew right over it. The other craft looked like an ancient fighter jet. Must be an antique that the rebels were using.

Jace changed the direction he was riding in and moved to a side street as the military spacecraft crashed into the ground and began rolling along the street he was just on. His armor began dinging and he answered. "What do you need?"

"Just making sure you made it out okay." Anna responded, sounding a bit winded. "That thing pulled back out. Fortunately for us the hole it created collapsed so the ocean is not filtering in. But we are going to be flooded until we can funnel the water out. We are already coming up with a plan to turn it into a waterfall."

"Well-" Jace’s visor started alerting him to something and he looked over his shoulder to see that antique fighter jet spiral and crash into the side of a building before a different ship, a space craft shaped like a giant black spiral flew around the corner. Its tail end weaved like it had tendrils. "I found where that ship went."

"It’s chasing you?"

"It’s chasing me." Jace confirmed as he directed Colonel to a different street and pulled out his Wisp Rifle, putting it on his back. Then put his spectre knife in a sheath on his arm. He had to be armed later. He could maybe take one or two unarmed. But more than that would cause problems. "You are probably going to want to give your brother a heads up so he can tell his government buddies."

"Will do. Come visit again when you get a chance." She told him before ending the call. Jace spotted something and tapped Colonel’s sides, directing him down into the underground tunnel. That went under the streets where roads were running along the second floor of buildings. Unexpectedly the tunnel was empty.

As he rode through the tunnel his visor began ringing again and he raised an eyebrow in surprise before answering. "Hey Cain, it seems you have better access up on the moon than I do on the planet."

"Of course you know where we are. I suppose I was worried for nothing." Cain answered with something that sounded like a grunt. "Anyways. We managed to get in contact with Shinobi and Valkyrie. But can’t reach Victor. We were also just attacked-"

"By some black armored thing with an orange underlayer?" Jace asked with a chuckle as the end of the tunnel came into view.

"Yeah, you too?"

"I am currently being chased by one. They can block my dimensional tattoos." Jace explained as he ducked his head as the Colonel jumped out of the tunnel. "Have you seen their ship yet?"

"Yeah. We are taking care of it now. I can’t reach Shinobi or Valkyrie right now, so I am assuming they are dealing with one of their own." Cain admitted. "But our stolen evidence shows five of these ships appeared in the system. But that is only three if we are right. We are still missing two ships."

"One for Victor and an extra one." Jace clicked his tongue in annoyance as the ship was still following him but now it pulled ahead of him. Which was not a good sign. "How much time do we have to chat?"

"Another minute or two before the local military picks up the signal." Cain answered.

"Then let’s get the important stuff out of the way. I sent a bunch of my gear with a woman named Liz to Shinobi and Valkyrie. Make sure all three stay where they are. I am going to get Victor who is on the Western Continent." Jace began explaining as he pulled Colonel into a side street as the ship began opening up its rear and tearing up sides of buildings dropping debris into the street that was ahead of him.

"Then you will meet up with them and get up here. We almost have the ship ready, we just need the design schematics for the custom engine." Cain informed him.

"Nope. I will send the design up with the rest of them but I will be surrendering myself to the local empire. We need more intel and sealing it would be the best way. But we do have a problem. They have a woman named the archivist, but her actual name is Catherine Hex. She might end up becoming a problem in the future." Jace informed Cain.

Cain was silent for a few seconds. "Understood. We will coordinate at your request. Best of luck, and we discovered that these creatures’ bodies when exposed to oxygen deteriorate almost immediately."

"Thanks for the intel. I will talk again soon." Jace then ended the call as they rounded a corner to find a military police blockade.

"Freeze in the name of the emperor-" The soldier stopped as Jace directed the Colonel up some debris and jumped over a small wall.

Jace grunted as the Colonel landed on the road and slid for a moment. Making neighing noises as it adjusted and then began running immediately as the side of a building exploded in debris as the ship from earlier went through a wall. "That is not a good sign." Jace admitted as the debris fell all over the military checkpoint.

Fortunately he could see the bridge in the distance. He was almost in an open area. He just had to get through these next few buildings. But it would seem the things on the ship understood what he was up to because they pulled ahead of him again. Except this time as they did the bottom of it opened up and a pair of those creatures from before dropped down. Except these two were riding some type of quadpedal machine or creature. He could honestly not tell.

They both slammed into the ground next to him. As they pulled out weapons. Jace kicked one hard enough that Colonel swayed and the creature flew off its mount but the other one stabbed Colonel in the side. But Jace was close enough to pull out his knife and slit the creature’s throat cutting through the orange fabric with ease and exposing it to the air.

"Grraarghh!" The creature made a guttural scream as it flailed and fell off its vehicle.

Jace turned his attention to Colonel who had a strange shaped knife in its side and was grunting and neighing in pain. But he was continuing to run. "Come on Colonel. As soon as we get to those woods I can patch you up."

He looked back over his shoulder to see the other one was back up and picking up speed. Almost catching up. Jace sheathed his knife and pulled the wisp rifle off his back and fired a single shot that tore through the creature’s midsection and caused it to collapse. He put his rifle on his back.

Then his visor picked up another incoming call. This one was bouncing off the custom communicator he made. He quickly tracked the source to a ship in orbit. He answered it with a chuckle as he was getting a lot of calls in a short period of time. All when he was busy too.

He answered the call. "Seriously."

"Gladiator, I hope you do not mind. I got your contact information from Pliro."

"Miss Hex, I am in the middle of something. Right now is not the best time." Jace sighed in annoyance as he blocked an attempt to hack his armor. "That is not really helping."

"Hmm... worth a try. I must say. I am watching you through a nearby security camera and that armor is remarkable. There are traces of Vexical designs but it is remarkably far more advanced." She admitted.

"Yeah? What would you know about that? If I recall, that was more of your deceased husband’s occupation." Jace chuckled as he watched the ship pull away and far ahead. It looked like it was going to reposition to destroy the bridge.

"I know enough. But what makes you think my husband is dead?" Catherine asked after a moment of silence.

Jace directed the Colonel to the side of the bridge so they would have some cover. "I have my ways. Get to the reason you called."

"I know about one of the Abyssal’s weaknesses. If you tell me about my son, I will tell you their weakness." She suggested.

Jace bit his lip to hold back his anger. It had been awhile since he had been this angry.