Space Odyssey: Spectre

Jace walked into the command center aboard the Charon to find the ship captain along with Solisa already waiting inside. They were watching a map of the continent he just left. Solisa turned to him before turning back to the hologram table.

"Isalla is completely secure. We are just in the cleanup phase. The air battle has already concluded. What craft we did not destroy has retreated." Solisa explained as Jace looked over the map.

The blitz was commencing fast. The outlying villages and towns in range of Isalla had already fallen. The forces from the other cities had set up remote bases outside of their cities. Likely as a wall to push back Jace’s army.

The only thing stopping them from orbital bombing was the possibility of them dragging civilians as a form of human shields. Although from the intelligence, it seemed that there were only four or five groups on the planet that would do something like that.

"Have you made a decision about the unknown ship in the depths of the ocean?" Solisa asked as Jace stood at the edge of the table and watched as the green area on the map, the area they had liberated, slowly grew in size but went around the cities that were more central to the continent. There was only one city on the continent that was coastal.

"Yeah, we are marking it as need-to-know only. If things go well then we can inform them once they join us. But if they don’t then there is no need for them to know." Jace declared, "and there is especially no reason for us to go digging around."

Solisa tilted her head. "Okay..." She let out a long drawn out sigh a few puffs at a time. "Almost all infantry units have landed. All armored units have landed along with all construction and support units. I am sure you have a battlefield plan?"

Jace manipulated the hologram map to show movements and an overall strategy. "We are taking them city by city. The coastal city will be the last one, by the time we get to it we should have sea landing craft prepared. Which reminds me, have the construction crew build a base on the water near our initial landing location."

"Why there?" The Charon Captain asked.

"Because they would not expect it. We have so much activity on the other side of the continent that they will not realize it until it is too late. Which reminds me, have we found ways into the other cities on the continent we are currently taking?" Jace asked as he highlighted the cities on the map.

"Scouting teams are enroute." Solisa announced and then shimmered bright blue for a moment. "I have the Kin ambassador online. Do you want to talk to him?"

Jace raised an eyebrow. "He wants to talk to me? I am surprised they are not sending someone over to check these things."

"Apparently he wants to discuss it. It is likely they already know about it." Solisa told him. "The Kin have been very cooperative with Cerberus since the galactic government was founded. They see the galactic council as a cooperative necessary to survive, yet for some reason they see you and Cerberus as eternal allies."

Jace tilted his head as his expression was likely thoughtful as he thought about what that might mean. Eventually he just nodded in understanding. "Okay, probably because before encountering a species that can communicate with them they thought themselves alone aside from some savages that would consume them for some reason."

"That is how they see carbon based creatures?" The captain asked.

"To be fair," Solisa shrugged with her little otter shoulders and waved her hands. "Most humanoid creatures are savages. I mean you consume other living things for sustenance and necessitate death in others to survive."

Jace shook his head. He was dressed in basic black clothes without any details. He preferred it over having rank symbols. In fact the only noticeable detail of his entire outfit was the fact that there was a single emblem of the Cerberus Unit on his shirt’s shoulder. "Enough about your problems with organic beings, you can open the communication."

Solisa nodded and a holographic soundwave appeared in the air. "Commander Jace, the electricity based organism you encountered is a psychic jellyfish. They do not appear in areas of the galaxy where people can inhabit. They are typically found near dead stars and lifeless systems that your scanners have a tendency to overlook. But sometimes they mutate and latch onto creatures with a mind. When this happens we find it is best to kill all mutated psychic jellyfish. We can send someone to assist if need be but we have a feeling it is not necessary with nanohumans’ penchant for psychic defences."

Jace frowned as he thought over their information. "Is there any reason they might kill the sirens instead of trying to take over their minds?"

There was silence for a moment as the Kin seemed to think for a moment as the soundwave went still. It was that or it was psychically communicating with its cohorts. "Sirens are an origin species of this galaxy. Even if they have mutated due to human influence, they likely developed a resistance to the creatures. A resistance that other origin species like ourselves have developed. May we, the Kin, send a research group to the planet? Not to study the psychic jellyfish but to study the sirens."

Jace hummed. "That would be more up to the sirens than to us. Once the first continent is liberated and they start putting together a government we will forward your request to them. But is there any easy way to kill them?"

"Yes," the Kin ambassador answered almost immediately. "The method of killing them is attached to a message we just sent out. There is an electro-sonic frequency that is unknown to organics that will transmit electricity over a distance. I suggest you develop such technology as a means of deploying the correct frequency. Have a good day Commander Jace, and welcome back."

Just like that, the communication ended and the holographic map popped back up. Jace tilted his head and then a flood of ideas swam through his mind before he shook his head. He looked at Solisa who smirked. "Go on..."

"Wait, did the Kin just imply there is a method of transmitting electricity across space and air?" The Captain of the Charon asked in astonishment.

"Yes and no. We already have part of the equation. But the Kin’s implication was the other half." Jace explained as he moved to a console and began to pull up the relevant information. "With this we can perfect point-to-point teleportation. As for the psychic jellyfish..." He looked over at Solisa.

Solisa shook her head. "There is a mention of a similar species but I did not connect it until the Kin mentioned origin species which only encompasses species that originate in this galaxy. Like the accer and mar’talic."

"Meaning origin species are immune to whatever the psychic jellyfish can do?" The captain asked with a relieved sigh. The captain of the Charon was actually a mar’talic himself. But like most Victorium members they had, he was more capable than politically connected so he only rose in rank once he joined the Cerberus Unit.

"Possibly, we will have to look into it more at a later date. But that is not our focus at the moment. I think I can rig up a transmitter and jamming device into an electro-sonic frequency emitter. In addition we can start testing point-to-point teleportation to make it easier to liberate the cities." Jace declared as he started putting pieces together. A design already formatting in his mind.

"What should we do while we wait?" Solisa asked and then there was a loud beeping as the hologram shrunk until they were looking at not just the entire planet but the entire solar system. Which revealed that unknown, possibly enemy spacecraft had appeared on the other side of the system.

"How about you find a way to deal with that?" Jace suggested as he made his way to the door. "An enemy fleet suddenly appearing might mean Vana is following them. If she has time, I need to talk to her."

As he walked to a different room he was already testing his theory while he walked. He knew he could transfer electricity through the air. But he had never played with the idea of instantaneous transfer. He could already manipulate electricity as easily as he breathed. But if he could modify that to manipulate the air, he could teleport using just his body as a power source and his mind as a computer.

He held up a hand and electricity grouped up in a ball and sparked above it as he walked. He hummed as he could feel resistance to moving it. Perhaps building the emitter would give him a better insight into the situation?