Space Odyssey: Spectre

Jace hummed as he looked at the gravitational shielding structure from his office. "So now you just need time?" He asked.

"Time and decent techs. Like I am sure it would go ten times quicker with your help." Hielo suggested from her seat.

The hologram of Solisa flailed around for a moment. "He can’t. He has to go and liberate that planet. The one that is occupied and has a Siren colony on it."

"Urgh..." Hielo leaned back. "We could have let the military have it."

"Actually we could not. It was probably missed by them but a gateway is orbiting that planet." Jace explained. He turned and flipped open his journal and then slid it forward for them to look at. "Since this is a system on the edge of the galaxy it would also serve as our outermost border but I was originally more concerned with the Siren’s population is dangerously low and if the military came around they would have culled both them and the invaders because it was easier."

"This is a complex set of dots. Did you seriously leave it without any details?" Solisa asked as she looked at it through her holographic form.

"Yeah," Jace nodded. "Easier to keep it a secret that way." He explained. "Anyways, you will have to make do without me for at least a few months. I am taking the Lance to secure that planet while the rest of Cerberus under Vana’s command will be taking out the rest of the foreigner fleet."

"You expect the foreigners to call for help while you are taking back the planet and will draw more in?" Solisa asked.

"I do." Jace nodded.

"How do you expect Vana to handle the fleet from the planet?" Hielo asked.

"I am not on the planet." Vana walked into the room and set down a bag on the floor. She locked eyes with Jace and smiled. "We could capture some of the spacecraft."

"Down the ships on barren planets but do not risk our people. You will be able to run command of the fleet from this office. I plan to handle the retaking of..." He pulled up the emergency notice. Then frowned, "New Atlantis? Seriously?"

"Yeah, the sirens renamed the planet." Solisa answered. "So do you know what kind of weapons and troops you will need?"

"Nope, I plan to take it chunk by chunk. So I will first drop in pods with a special operations team. Then once I secure a landing sight I will signal the Lance to bring in the appropriate troops." Jace explained.

"I suppose that is the way to do it, especially since they are utilizing civilians as shields. But I doubt that is all you want to do." Vana scoffed.

"You are right, I also need you to get a group together. We need someone to bring a reactor onto the gateway station. We should secure it sooner rather than later. You have to put together a team of people who will not be missed." Jace explained as he tapped a folder with paper. "These are the instructions."

"You made instructions for activating the gateway?" Solisa asked in surprise.

"No, I memorized the process from when Cain and I did it. I theorized that it will be the same for other gateways. So I just wrote it down a while before you arrived." Jace explained as he moved around the desk. "There are only two beings in existence that know the process and one of them is back in the Milky Way Galaxy."

"So we need to find people who won’t be missed and won’t miss the world for at least a year." Vana picked up and began looking through the papers. "I know some people. Mostly people that are going to be exploring the planet. They are people that Salem has personally checked out. If you give me permission, I can transfer them to the ship and have them do the gateway."

"Sound’s good. Make sure their minds are sufficiently protected. The Xenar are on the hunt for us apparently." Jace reminded her.

"Yeah, I know. No one on our planet goes planet side without psychic protection. Even the kids got stuff implanted by Salem." Vana informed him. "Speaking of the kids. Are you going to come meet them at any point in your or their lives?"

"Not yet. I want to minimize distractions. I have enough variables at the moment with this galactic war without having to worry about making precautions and preparation for their potential futures." Jace explained as he slowly moved to the door. "Which is to say that if I come across them I will start learning what their futures hold for them and I do not want to deal with that while having to secure an entire galaxy’s future."

"How?" Vana asked in confusion.

"Foresight, he can see the future to a certain degree. But it does not come all at once. He is spoon fed information by a dormant part of his brain that is splintered from the rest of it." Hielo summed up quickly.

"Clever." Solisa hummed. "Artificial intelligences do something similar but we are not able to shift brain power that would be necessary to sparse information about potential futures. Your mind must now be at least twenty times more powerful than an average human mind. I suppose all of your evolving was not just external but internal. How curious?"

"Enough about my undoubtedly fascinating brain. Is there anything else I should be appraised of? How is Valkyrie and Shinobi’s whole ’we need religion’ idea going?" Jace asked as he sat down on a couch that was in his room. The others began to move to comfortable chairs as well.

"I do not get much in the way of communicating while I am on Hades-6. We are working on a solution but I am sure you will think of something as soon as you are done with building whatever you are working on with Taylor." Vana answered with a notable note of spite mixed into her words.

"Ahem!" Taylor cleared her throat as she sat across from him. "They are starting a religion with a belief in ancestors and the belief in those that came before rather than a possibly fictional being we deified for the purpose of advanced technology. The whole angel thing really ran its course. Anyways-" She glanced at Solisa. "It is going just as you might expect. She managed to get the majority of the Holy Empire remnant but others are calling it blasphemy and declaring their own religion so they can snatch up followers and power."

Jace smirked. "I imagine it has not yet become a problem for the galactic government but will start to become one when one of those religions attempts to orchestrate a coup to snatch more power. Are they still in the system?"

"Yeah, they are going to work as mercenaries for us until they can afford some space craft and then they are going to establish colonies in uninhabited systems. Should we help them?" Solisa asked as she floated upside down.

"No, individuals can help. But help from a group or organization will set a precedent. Make sure nothing relating to our system’s government or military goes and donates to any religious order. Anything on a lower level can get involved but nothing beyond a small organization." Jace declared as he rubbed his forehead. "How about the Oda Empire? What is going on with them and Shinobi?"

"The Oda Empire is struggling and since the empress is still alive there is a claim they can reclaim themselves as an autonomous government. But there is also the possibility of keeping the border closed while they retake their territories. But they are already considering letting them solve their problems without external influence after all of the dark elves are removed from their pockets of power." Solisa explained.

"Shinobi specifically is assisting the Empress’ faction with funds and rallying donations with the help of Valkyrie’s new religion." Hielo explained as she pulled out a device and handed it over to him. "Jamal has already leaked a variety of information, that is why Governor Basic tried to do what he did. The speaker does not know but it is clear there is still a hidden line of communication that is going on."

"Jamal was debriefed by a member of a political siding faction. But it did not leak to all factions. Does Fenrir know?" Jace asked.

"More than likely. Should we investigate?" Vana asked as she continued to flip through the papers.

"Only surface level stuff. As soon as someone starts causing issues with us we will start digging. But until then it is Fenrir and the Dakotas problem. Not ours." Jace answered as he rubbed the back of his neck and leaned back. "Eduta is able to track Xenars if they start digging near minds within his vicinity. He already passed on to Fenrir the location of one group. Keep an eye out, he is training monks among Valkyrie’s new religion."