Space Odyssey: Spectre

Jace felt weightless as the ship flew straight up into the air. Below he could see the attack ships that were attempting to take them down. More had gathered over the last few minutes, but thanks to Asana's flying and him acting as a rear gunner, they had been forced to try and shoot at them from odd angles.

Now he was hanging by his boots and the harness that was attached to his armor. Looking down at the attack ships. It was almost entertaining especially since he could hear the others yelling at each other as they got in impromptu seats or held onto something.

"The Elysium just arrived. We are on a straight course for it." Asana announced as she flew the ship.

Jace grunted in response while he focused and pulled up possible targets he could shoot at from this position. Using his advanced heads up display he got advanced shooting points. Most of them were ships. But there were a few that were military vehicles and encampments.

He took a moment to carefully calculate before he fired. The first cannon-bullet ripped through a ship and continued on to slam into a large encampment of enemy soldiers. After that he had to be careful about how he shot since he had no way to identify enemies and allies this far from the target.

But as the atmosphere was sucked out of the rear ramp area that was cut off from the rest of the ship he was thankful for the distance and began firing more shots at the enemy attack craft. At this distance from the ground it would get slowed enough by air that it would not be as big as a problem.

As he hit the attack craft some of them exploded upon impact. Some were silently destroyed as the pilot was killed or the bullet slammed into a critical system that did not explode. So they dropped to the ground but as they kept climbing the ships became more like meteors than actual ships as they fell.

Then they just floated as they arrived in space and he could see the chaos of the battle that was taking place. There was plenty of debris floating around but as the first enemy ship came into view, it was clearly labeled as they were connected to their command ship's targeting systems now. So he aimed and fired the tri-cannon toward a few points that looked critical.

He could not tell how much damage he was doing as he fired at the larger ships. But the smaller ones were getting disabled or destroyed when he fired at them. So for now it was enough of an effect that they eventually seemed to be trying to avoid their ship. Once that was clear he relaxed a bit more as they flew. Only taking a few shots when he saw an opportunity.

Soon the ship was flying into a hangar and he watched as the ship flew around and landed. He could see in the distance walking toward the ship was Director Fenrir and a few other people including medical personnel. He moved over to the side of the ramp and pressed a few buttons as he glanced at the others who were in the ship, they seemed mostly annoyed but a few looked sick. Once the shielding and environmental shield were down he removed the harness and disabled the magnetic locking on his shoes.

Once that was done he began walking towards the director, still holding the heavy tri-cannon. "I see you found a use for it after all." She pointed out.

"Orders?" Jace asked as he stood at attention. He wanted to get down and back into the action. But he could not just run around and do anything that he wanted to do or thought would be helpful.

"We will get to that in a second." Director Fenrir told him before looking over the worn contents of the ship as they spilled out. Only a few of the maids were truly sick and completely thrown off by the rough ride.

Well them and the prince who came out being carried by Head Maid Rook. He was resting his head on her shoulder as they walked over to them. "Consort Fenrir," The head maid slightly bowed, "it is a pleasure to see you again."

"You as well, my friend." Fenrir responded with a smile and reached forward, pulling the prince out of the head maid's hands. "How has he behaved as of late?"

"Good, he really is a prodigy when it comes to metallurgy. He has so many interesting ideas that I honestly do not understand." Head Maid Rook answered, "but his circumstances have left him starved for friends and connections."

"Well that will be remedied easily enough." Fenrir responded before looking at Jace. "You and your unit are going to board one of the enemy ships. The one carrying the first prince, but he is not the target. The targets are the books he has stolen from a secret archive room. They are old school books so there is no way to track them if he escapes with them."

"Understood. Was there anything else we needed to do aboard the enemy ship?" Jace asked as he noticed a bunch of weapon crates were being carted in the direction of his ship. Most of them were boxes they had taken off when they departed the Discovery to come to Vexical Prime. The only reason the director had caught up was because The Elysium was faster then their modified Guardian-01.

"Nope. But I would suggest being careful. Prince Cassius is like an animal when he is backed into a corner. There is no telling what he might do." Director Fenrir explained.

Jace nodded his head and then noticed a soldier standing just behind her and nodded his head. Director Fenrir followed his nodding and then smirked, "meet the tenth member of your squad. Specialist Rook, he happens to be Head Maid Rook's son. He is also part of the next generation of Spectres that have yet to achieve the desired growth before final training."

Jace blinked in surprise and then bowed his head in understanding. "I will push him to better himself." Jace then looked at the specialist, "new kid. Go and get ready with the others we are leaving in ten minutes." As he watched him quickly rush off he waited and then turned to Fenrir, "is that all?"

"No, after the battle your joint unit will be joining us at Echo Base for redeployment. The chaos a civil war has caused is worse than we thought." She explained before turning and walking away with her son.

Jace shook his head and gave a slight head bow to the Head Maid before he went to join his squad.