Space Odyssey: Spectre

He fell quickly through the air toward the ground. As he did he pulled grenades out of his bag and triggered them before tossing them around. Spacing them far enough that they would cover the entire village. By the time he landed on the ground with a heavy thud a net of the grenades bounced on the ground once before triggering.

Electricity arced through the air and lit up the village. Jace could feel an arc hit him and reflect off as he denied absorbing it. The air was too filled with electricity to use any of his normal sensory tricks so he just waited a moment as he moved around. As far as he could tell, there were no sirens here. Nor any prisons or cages where they might have been.

He noticed something else. The buildings were clean and the layout indicated more of a military facility rather than a village. This was not a place with prisoners. He found a few unconscious guards near the wooden gates of the village.

He slapped one of them awake as he could hear thuds as drop pods began to land nearby. The enemy soldier awoke, they were once again humans. But when he opened his eyes, Jace was less convinced of this fact when he saw that black pupils that took up his eyeballs.

The soldier did not even speak as it reached for a weapon on its hip. Jace grabbed the man’s hand and held it still as he picked up something odd. There was some strange electrical signal going from this person into the air.

Now that he had picked up on it, the signal was also floating in the air. Stretching out like tendrils toward the area as it searched for something. He could see as the drop pods opened and the soldiers stepped out. As soon as the first one stepped out their armor’s shielding flashed and all of them reacted but did not spot an enemy.

Jace materialized a revolver and shot the guard in the head.

Bang!

He then shot the other guard in the head. The unit that came down in the drop pods moved over to him with their weapons raised and scanning the area. "It is not a visible enemy." Jace informed them as more of their armor’s defenses triggered. "Spread out and execute all of the soldiers while I figure out how to kill it." He ordered as the revolver dematerialized.

He looked up at the source of the tendrils. Floating in the air was a large electrical mass outside of the normal visible spectrum. But he could still see it using his electrical vision. It looked a bit like a massive jellyfish with tendril going down toward each of the people it was controlling before he set off emp grenades.

Although there was one massive tendril heading off across the ocean. But with each gunshot and death of an enemy soldier the mass of electrical energy started disappearing. While the large tendril going across the ocean slowly disappeared.

"Sir what is going on?" The captain of the unit approached and asked.

"Some type of hive mind creature that uses electricity to transmit and communicate. But it looks like it needs hosts it can latch onto. Armor’s shielding is blocking it for the moment. Let me try..." Jace answered as he raised a hand up and released a massive arc of electricity toward the jellyfish and it swelled for a moment before exploding. The tendril connecting it across the ocean toward an unknown location began to fade and disappear, like it was being pulled back now that this node was dead.

"Woah..." The captain mumbled and Jace hummed in confusion. "I do not know what you did. But it looks like there are tiny fireworks exploding in the air above the village."

Just deactivated his electrical vision and watched the fireworks. "I think when I destroyed this node the parts that acted as nerve centers started to explode. Since they are microorganisms it is taking some extra time for them to explode."

"How odd..." The captain mumbled.

"Captain!" One of the soldiers came running over. "It looks like they just died. In fact it looks a bit like their nervous systems exploded with all the blood coming out of their orifices." He saluted and then relaxed. "What should we do?"

"Double tap the bodies. Then have your unit’s medical officer do a field examination." Jace ordered and then looked toward the captain. "Once your people are done killing the soldiers. Spread out and look for signs of the original inhabitants of this village."

"Yes sir." The captain of the unit saluted and then walked away. Loudly giving out orders to his subordinates.

Jace entered a communication channel with the fleet. "This is Jace. Call off, who is on the channel?"

"Solisa is present." Solisa answered. "Vana is busy at the moment so I am taking her place."

"Vesuvius present. All of my ground troops have been dropped." The Vesuvius was the drop pod ship that he was dropped from along with the Muddied Salamanders.

"The first landing ships just left the hangars. This is the Aqua Weaver." The Aqua Weaver was a large ship that had plenty of hangars and storage space with not much in terms of offense or defense when it came to a space battle. But its main purpose here was to land ground troops onto the planet.

"Juliette is present." The Juliette was part of a pair of combat ships that was tasked with protecting the fleet.

"Romeo is present as well." Romeo was the other half of the combat ships.

"Charon is present." The Charon is the command ship for this fleet and the operation. It also currently houses Solisa at the moment. It has a variety of uses from landing ground troops to launch attack craft and mech for space combat. But at the moment it was a communication hub.

"Already running into a possible issue. Solisa, I need you to run a low atmosphere scan of the planet, make a map of electrical anomalies below human perception." Jace ordered as he leaned up against a wooden wall.

"Non-human entity?" Solisa asked.

"Yeah," Jace answered. "I am thinking of some type of parasitic hivemind. It was probably disguised before and decided to nest on this planet but when I knocked a bunch of its hosts out with electrical grenades it woke up."

"Understood. Any other reason you needed to talk to us?" She asked.

"A few more." He took a breath. "Apparently there is an enemy commander smart enough to know they are out matched and sent a patrol with a letter of surrender as well as a wealth of information."

"You want to test it before completely relying on it for a full invasion. Understandable. The Charon will send down a prison transport. You can send the letter with the transport and I will analyze it. Just in case should I have the Underworld System prepare a prison transport?" Solisa asked in turn.

"Please do." Jace hummed as he looked into the sky and could see the hulls of the transport spacecraft as they began to burn through the atmosphere of the planet. "Also get an official down here. We need to start making a record of casualties for each village and town. The conditions of the Siren are worse than we thought."

"Understood." Solisa answered. Then Jace had to disconnect from the channel as he noticed the captain of the unit he was with was attempting to get his attention.

"Commander!" The captain waved at him from across the village. In an area between the wall and a building on the far side of the village.

Jace began to make his way over and noticed that some of the soldiers had dug up the ground. "What happened?" He asked as he saw one of them frantically digging while... crying?

"Sergeant Nettle has an ability that allows him to scan the earth and surroundings." The captain informed him.

"Useful for scouting and surveying. An impressive skill. Yet I do not see the relevance just yet." Jace pointed out as he moved closer and looked down into the hole. His electrical vision activated and he flinched. He did not usually look down, so he had not noticed. But now that he was looking, he could clearly see it.

"He started digging when he noticed a bunch of bodies buried underground in this area. Covering the area between the two walls. He-"

"That is enough, captain. I can see it as well." Jace told him with a sigh. The bodies were not too deeply buried. They had only partially decayed as well. So it happened within the last few weeks. "Every former occupant of this village. From the youngest child to the oldest elder is buried under there. Pull your sergeant away and send him back up to the ship when you get a chance."

There was silence for a moment before a pair of soldiers slid into the hole that Nettle had made and started pulling him out. He was crying as he was pulled away. No doubt this would be a trauma he would live with for the rest of his life.