Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Hmm... that is just as bad as I thought." Adrian mumbled as they looked at the village. It was located partially in the swamp. With wooden cages being floated off of docks. They could see the sirens inside. Mostly women who were chained to the wall and were bleeding from visible injuries.

But Jace could see a less injured woman screaming as a human soldier dragged her into a house. Pala was standing next to him and was shaking in anger. Jace hummed and could see a person with a loose uniform walking out of a raised tower. He made his way down and then walked into the house where the screaming woman was dragged.

"I think I just spotted the commanding officer." Jace hummed out.

"I did too. I also think that tower is the communication center." Adrian agreed. "U, Pala, and Jace head out."

Jace nodded his head and disappeared. Pala dove into the water and her armor camouflaged. U made his way quickly through the foliage until he arrived at the dock when he arrived at a guard and snapped his neck when he looked away. A moment later U’s armor changed into the guards form while the guard fell into the water.

U began making his way through the village. Pala was going under and Jace...

Jace was walking along the dock. He was invisible so it was fine. Or at least mostly fine he had to move through some water to wash away the mud that got caught on his armor. Now he was making his way to the long house where that commanding officer went. But as he walked by another house he stopped by the window.

He could see inside the room as a pair of human soldiers were having their way with a siren woman. He was going to enter but stopped when he noticed a hatch leading under the house into the swamp water. He saw it peek open slightly.

Jace nodded and walked away as he heard grunts of pain rather than pleasure a moment later. He walked past another guard who was standing near the cage of sirens. Then arrived at the longhouse and frowned.

It was a shared house for almost all of the soldiers it seemed. Each soldier had a woman. Some of the women were resisting but it seemed most of their spirits had been broken. He slipped into the long house.

Jace watched U through the window as he made his way to the tower. Then he felt something push against his foot and he looked down to see one of the women had pushed away her assaulter and accidentally bumped into his foot as she was crawling away.

She frowned as her hand rested on his foot and then she looked up and frowned more.

"You &^&&(^&^! You bite my *&^*(*(." The man who was assaulting her walked over with a small wooden bat in hand. Clearly intent on hitting the women. Jace only thought about it for a moment before he materialized his knife and sliced through his throat.

There was barely any splatter as the man went quiet. "Gurgh..." Blood gurgled up his throat as the siren woman stood up and looked at him and then at the invisible Jace.

Jace looked out the window and saw that U had secured the communication room or was about to. He was currently choking out a person before disappearing below the windows. Jace turned back to the room and moved toward the commanding officer he spotted earlier.

His translation program was working overtime to translate their language. "*&(*(& are you okay?" The dead man’s commanding officer asked. Jace walked forward and tapped the man on the shoulder. The moment he did the man collapsed unconscious.

"Hey! What the fuck was that?" One of the others asked as Jace moved forward tapping another person causing him to go unconscious. He would knock out one more before killing the rest. So he tapped another of their shoulders and they fell to the ground as he appeared.

"Who the fuck-" One of the ones in the back starting screaming as he pulled off of a woman. He did not get to finish his sentence as the knife embedded itself in the middle of his face. Jace was crossing the room grabbing one of the other enemies by the face and slamming into the ground.

Jace did not even bother checking on them as he moved towards the next person as a laser bounced off his armor. Scorching the ground nearby. He dematerialized and rematerialized the knife into his hand again before he threw it at the culprit. It lodged in their neck and they flailed and fell to the ground as Jace slammed his boot into the chest of another enemy.

They flew through the air and right through the back wall of the long house. Silence permeated the room for almost an entire minute as the last three enemies started to back away in terror.

"Aaahhh!" One of the Siren women screamed as they yanked Jace’s knife out of the last guy that Jace threw it at. She leaped at one of the men and started stabbing them in the back.

A moment later the other women swarmed the last two and began to tear at them. Using anything at hand to beat them to death. Jace only watched for a moment before he moved to retrieve the three enemy soldiers that he knocked out.

As he kicked open the door the outside was already a commotion as the few living enemy soldiers were making a final stand in one of the houses. The rest of the unit had made their way up the dock as he dumped the three unconscious enemy soldiers on the edge of the dock. He watched the chaos for a few moments until it ended with Pala walking out covered in blood from the building where the last enemy holdouts were located.

"Feel better?" Jace asked as she walked up. She was not the only one approaching him. The women from the long house were coming out as well now. It took them a few moments to put something on to wear.

"Much. Sorry, I did not leave any survivors." Pala declared proudly and unapologetically.

"That is fine. I have three." Jace answered and turned to the sirens. "Can you understand me?"

"I do." One of the women stepped forward and held out his knife. He accepted it and it disappeared. "We mostly speak Old Hexarian on this continent." She then nodded at the three enemies that were unconscious by Jace’s feet. "What are you going to do to them?"

"Interrogate them. Then hand any survivors over to you." Jace answered. He looked over to see Cinder and Eel were helping the sirens out of the cage. "I already suspect it but I am going to ask anyway. The fact that there are only women, does that mean..."

"They killed the men. Executed them, the older generation as well. They took some of the younger girls and the children to the city. Apparently they would make good for the slave trade ’back home’ as they said it." The woman explained. "Who are they? They speak a language that is similar but different. I could only understand parts of what they said."

"They are from a foreign galaxy." Jace answered as he injected electricity into three unconscious prisoners as he could see U dragging over an additional pair of unconscious enemy soldiers.

"A foreign galaxy? How did so many get here? I know there are records of small groups or strays. But our entire planet was occupied." The woman pointed out in anger.

Jace hummed. "You really have been cut off from the rest of the galaxy." Jace chuckled as he kicked the prisoners. "I will let Captain Adrian explain what has happened and then you can spread it among your people as you figure out what you are going to do."

"Oh joy," Adrian mumbled. "I suppose I know what I am doing for the next hour."

"Sorry but that is going to have to wait." U interrupted before they could continue. He dropped his prisoners next to Jace’s prisoners who were slowly starting to wake up. "There is an enemy craft inbound. Looks like these people’s superiors are sending a ship out here to check on any possible asteroid debris."

"That is a problem. It sounds like they are suspicious of something coming in with the asteroids. I guess we are going to have less of an opportunity to surprise him." Jace grunted out in annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Cinder asked.

"A base not checking in, especially one like this, would not be unusual. But if it is a patrol, that is a different story. When they go missing they will know something is a foot and someone smart enough is already aware that something is wrong." Pala explained. "As soon as we kill the patrol we will be on a time table until they start putting up defences in our direction. We need a beach head before that happens."

Jace let out a breath of air as he thought. But his attention was grabbed as he noticed the prisoners near his feet began to wake up.