Space Odyssey: Spectre

"So you brought back plenty of footage of what you are calling a humanoid Apex kitinol. A few ’biological’ samples from the planet. Plenty of injured and contaminated soldiers. But only a fraction of what we already brought back in ore. Was it worth it?" Shilla asked sarcastically.

Jace frowned as he heard Shilla’s words that were laced with sarcasm. "You are going to have to be far more specific." Jace told her as he stood in his armor in the middle of the quarantine room as they were treated to a chemical bath. It would destroy any kitinol mites and any other disease or parasite they might bring on board.

"Jace... we could have found another system where that ore was located in space and easy to access." Shilla pointed out.

"Not quite." Jace shook his head. "That particular ore is found exclusively on plants and requires a specific combination of other ores mixing together with carbon to occur. Honestly, finding such a large vein that we could get all of it in one go was a miracle."

Shilla flinched and looked shocked. "I did not know that. What about the rest of the minerals and ore we did not find in this system?"

"A bunch of them-hey what do you think you are doing?" Jace suddenly turned and focused on one of the quarantine soldiers who was dressed in specific clothes and was scrubbing Jace’s armor with acid. They had gotten a bit too handsy for Jace’s liking.

"Sorry." The person bowed their head slightly and apologized before continuing.

Jace turned back to Shilla who he could see through a glass wall where the ’visitors’ for the quarantine area were located. "A bunch of the ores and minerals that we require less of are actually rare. They are less needed because we try to make do with areas that do not require it. But if we can get some extra, then that is good. But we will have to make do with what we can find. As soon as you fill up on more minerals and ores we are going to map the rest of the kitinol systems and then return to the Underworld System."

"Good because the Cerberus Unit has already run into a problem they need our help with." Shilla informed him. "One of the outer systems at the very edge of the galaxy was apparently populated by a fairly large colony. This colony has been occupied completely. We are looking at an issue with pulling them out. They are using the local colonists as shields."

"Then I doubt we can even safely land if the colony has been expansive enough." Jace grunted out in annoyance.

"You are correct." Shilla answered. "But here is where the real issue resides. It is not a human colony, it is a refugee Siren colony."

Jace cursed in several different languages that had the nearby quarantine cleaners reeling back and looking at him in shock. "Do the galactic government know?"

"Yes, when we destroyed the ships around the planet the jamming signal stopped and the relayed sos signal was sent out. It was not like we could stop it. So they know and are demanding that we make way so their troops can make landfall." Shilla explained, "of course this is the politicians asking this."

"Then ignore them and block them out." Jace started and then stopped. "Actually I will just contact them directly and give Hielo her orders as well." He decided as the cleaners moved away. He had been thoroughly cleaned. His external gear was being cleaned separately while his armor was back to the white and shiny base plate. With the scratches and cuts that a few of his foes had managed to permanently embed on his armor along with hidden hex writing along the edges of the armor.

"Okay, also the girls are waiting in your office when you can finally leave quarantine. Apparently you promised to play games with them?" Shilla pointed out.

Jace blinked under his helmet. "Did I?" He sighed after a moment. "Okay. You would not happen to want to join me?"

"Nope. I played with those trouble makers yesterday." Shilla quickly backed away with her hands up. "I am content to work my hours to the fullest and finish getting the ores and minerals that we can in this system."

Jace sighed and returned to being cleaned and checked for any lingering mites or diseases he might be bringing. It took another hour before he was allowed to leave. Once that was over he walked into his office tired and already changed into his black shirt, jeans, and boots combo.

"Dad." A plain voice spoke flatly and Jace flinched as he sighed.

"Okay, Jordan and Cho, what game do you two want to play?" Jace asked as he moved behind his desk. He looked over at them and froze in shock. "A boardgame?"

Jordan blushed while Cho giggled. "Jordan and I want to play this board game. While you were away we asked our moms about your history since you never talk about it. Since you lived in the slums and could never afford video games we figured you might do better with a physical game instead. Especially since you were so bad at video games." Cho explained with a knowing look. Cho was probably already aware that Jace barely touched board games either.

But it was clear that Jordan really wanted to play it. "Okay, but you are going to have to tell me the rules." Jace told them as he helped move around some of the objects in the room so they had space to play on the floor. "Despite what you may think, we could only afford to play games that involved cards, dice, or sticks."

"Oh..." Jordan looked at Cho but she just shrugged. "We could-"

"It is fine." Jace stopped her with a smile. "I am here to spend time with you two. Not rehash the past. Besides, I am sure I will do better at this board game then I did with video games."

Jordan set the box down and began opening it up. "So we compete for tokens in this game." She began explaining. "The person with the most tokens when they reach the end spot here-" She pointed at a spot in the center of the board. "Wins. But the way you get tokens is by landing on these green spaces. You can lose tokens if you land on the red spaces. The question marks means you have to draw a card and answer a question correctly. The exclamation point is a bunch of competition between multiple people, the person that wins gets a token, the person that loses then loses a token."

"The game is called... ’Accer, humans, and beasties, oh my?’" Jace asked as he looked at the title on the box top.

"Yes, it was a game made with the idea of understanding all races and people who are now in our galaxy. It is new but fun and informational!" Jordan explained in excitement.

Jace pulled out his communicator while Jordan and Cho set up the board. "I am going to have to make a few calls while I can." He connected it to the Lance’s network and then had them patch him through to the Underworld System through a secure network.

"This is Hielo." Taylor answered a moment later as Jordan continued to explain some of the rules.

"So if you roll a six you do double whatever the space you landed on. While we only use the six sided die to move. Then since we also only have three people we can’t do any of the team games." Jordan quickly explained.

"Taylor, quarantine the system that is having an issue with an occupation. I will get to the planet when I am done with resource collection which should be about a week longer. But make sure you get me in depth scans of the planet’s surface and any ground activity going on." Jace ordered her as he listened to Jordan explain that they each used a metal piece as their avatar for the game.

"Umm, is that Jordan in the background and what should I do about the galactic government?" Hielo asked in bewilderment.

"I will handle the galactic government and yes, I am playing a boardgame with them. Can you patch me through to the High Priestess?" Jace asked. "Run my signal through your current location like a relay."

"Give me a few moments." Hielo answered.

"What piece do you want to play as?" Jordan asked as she picked a small mech while Cho picked a cat. Jace reached over and picked up a piece that represented a lighting being, the Kin.

He had not heard about the Kin in a while. But like many other things he had checked out what was going on with them. They still existed and were around. But they took a less active voice in politics and only kept themselves secluded like the Centuria. Only bringing forward issues that concerned the citizens of the galaxy not the high level politics that had people trading favors.