Space Odyssey: Spectre

Now that Jace was done he could turn his attention to the enemies in the room. Of which there were only two left who were both hiding behind cover in a back corner of the room. Italo moved up to him. "There are only two left," he announced.

"I noticed." Jace chuckled as his communication lit up with communications and contacts. "This is Commander Jace, the bombs have been disabled. In addition, keep an eye out for siren resistance members. Muddied Salamander, do you need backup?" He asked as he tapped Italo’s shoulder and moved around the other side of the bomb.

He dematerialized his knife from the body it was sticking out of and rematerialized it in his hand. He came around the side of the bomb and threw his knife. It spun through the air as the last two enemies turned in his direction but one further back got stuck with the knife in their throat. The last one raised his weapon only for Italo to shoot him in the side of the head.

"What now?" He asked as they met up on the other side of the bomb.

"Now we return to the surface." Jace answered. He remotely connected to the tank and found that a large group had moved on their position. The other sirens squads were in combat with a large occupiers force that was closing in on the building’s above ground position. He had not noticed because he was so focused that he failed to notice that his tank was returning fire. But now one of the armored units was coming up behind the enemy’s side so their attention was quickly being split.

"This is Captain Adrian. We are on the roof of the central mansion. We have two injured, we still have the radioactive material, we are pinned down, and we have also captured the enemy commander." Adrian confirmed over the communication channel that instantly went quiet.

Jace was walking through the building as he responded. "Have all anti-air weapons been taken out?"

"Affirmative, but there are still small arms and heavy weapon fire in the field." Solisa confirmed. "What is the plan?"

"A pickup. Send a Wyvern to pick up Muddied Salamander and their cargo. The rest of us will move on the city and help the sirens retake it." Jace declared as he separated from Italo who went to get the rest of his squad while Jace moved to the surface.

"Jace, we are seeing movement from other cities on the continent while other continents and islands are deploying aircraft that are moving towards your location." Solisa quickly informed him.

"They must have called for help. I cannot do much jamming against a wired system." Jace confessed as his mind ran through the possible scenarios. "Deploy our own combat ships to intercept. Now that this city is secure we can land more troops and flood the continent. Deploy all ground troops and have them start securing all villages and towns that are outside of cities."

"Not the cities themselves?" One of the other captains asked. It sounded like Jo’nez who was moving on a route to the center of the city with most of his armored unit.

"No, they are moving their forces out of the cities and we will meet them on the field of battle. By the time they realize their mistake it will be too late." Jace explained as he walked through the surface building which was starting to fall apart so he had to step past fallen pieces of walls and a roof.

"A blitz." Solisa stated. "Understood. In addition Vana has confirmed that most of the enemy ships have been destroyed. The few that have not are surrendering and one of them is the Democracy of Canarus Galaxy ship."

"Good prepare the Canarus ship for full transport of all prisoners that we do not plan on executing. But strip it of anything but the bare essentials like life support." Jace ordered as he walked out into the chaos of a close quarters battle.

An enemy soldier ran past him with grenades in hand. Another enemy doing a suicide run. Jace reached out and grabbed them by the collar and threw them back to their group. The ensuing explosion carved a hole through the occupiers formation. One that both sides took advantage of and the enemies were all dealt with by the time Italo exited the building.

"Looks like all hell broke loose." Italo whistled as he stepped outside.

Jace nodded absentmindedly as turned away to start giving orders to his people. Once they were done wiping out the invaders they would be moving to taking the rest of the continent. Which would have a snowball effect and he would no longer be able to stay on the frontlines since it would span multiple fronts.

Italo went to communicate with his own people as well. After a few minutes he walked over to Jace as he stood near his tank talking to Lecrose who had come over and joined him. "Commander Jace?"

"Guard Commander Italo, how can I help you?" Jace asked as he turned to him. Sitting on the tank was a hologram transmitter which showed a floating Solisa as well as a live view of the continent with all of the enemy and friendly components that were moving.

"I came over to ask if you intend to occupy the city as well or you are just the enemies of the other group?" Italo explained. "I need to know whether or not it is necessary to set up a temporary government."

Jace nodded in understanding. "We are here to remove the occupiers. Any occupiers you capture we would like to be turned over to us for either execution or removal from our galaxy. You can do what you want with the lands we secure."

"Why?" Italo asked in confusion. "You must want something else?"

"Your planet and system falls under the Cerberus Units area of occupation. Basically, your planet is part of the area we operate in. As such it is our obligation to kick out any invaders, like these occupiers. Although we will need to set up a military base in orbit and a branch on the planet." Jace explained as he nodded at the map.

"So just an assurance we won’t attack you like we are the occupiers because you are here to protect us. Then I have a question, once our world is stabilized will your bases still be on and around our planet?" Italo asked with a trace of suspicion.

"The one on your planet can become completely under control of your chosen military. But the one in orbit will have to stay there. This is the edge of space and makes it a necessary area for a space base to be located for when foreign galaxies send people." Jace explained, "I will have a file made up to explain."

"Fine. But I doubt I am the best person to explain it to." Italo pointed out.

"That is for you to figure out with the rest of the people we are going to free." Jace informed him as he closed the tactical map. "Captain Lecrose here will be setting up the defenses for your city and will be your point of contact with me."

There was a loud hum as a wyvern hovered overhead. "We are waiting for your arrival on the Charon." Solisa announced before her hologram disappeared.

Jace grabbed both hologram projectors and tossed them to Captain Lecrose while his tank disappeared, dematerializing and returning to its place on his body as a tattoo. He moved to the building so he could easily jump into the transport wyvern ship when Italo held something out. "You forgot this." It was Jace’s knife.

Jace accepted it. "Good luck Italo, I am sure you will need it for the political shenanigans that will come your way next." He jumped softly up onto the roof of a building. It shook slightly as he landed, being unstable from all the damage that had occurred. Then he jumped up into the opening door of the Wyvern transport. Inside were a few injured soldiers and field doctors.

The Wyvern transport had been sent to pick him up after picking up the injured from one of the camps his people were already setting up. He closed the door behind him as it started to climb altitude toward space. "Okay Solisa, I am going away from the ground, what did you need to tell me?"

She had discreetly indicated that they needed to talk once he was sufficiently away from the planet. Hopefully she could tell him now that he was leaving the planet’s atmosphere. "Sorry Commander Jace, I did not want to risk a ground based communication system eavesdropping on our communications. During our scans of the planet we happened to find a spacecraft of unknown design that appears to have crashed into a deep part of the ocean. What do you want us to do?"