Space Odyssey: Spectre

"You wanted to talk?" Vana asked with a grumble as Jace walked into the command room. She seemed annoyed. No, she was most certainly annoyed. With him no doubt from the way she was glaring at him.

"I do, yes." Jace nodded as he slowed his pace and made his way to the command table where Solisa, the captain of the Charon, a hologram of Hielo, Vana, and Shilla were standing. Seemingly waiting for him to arrive. "But first, I think we should talk about our progress. It has been a day since we started. How are the liberation efforts going on the planet?"

Solisa spun in the air before starting. "All cities, villages, towns, and most of the first continent has been liberated. All that is left is the only coastal city. Which is under the dominion of the Grail. A religious based galactic nation who believe in their species’ dominion over all other species. For the record, the Grail people are a genetic mix of several different species including humans. They have the second most control in the amount of controlled cities and areas after the Democracy of Canarus. Neither of which had a firm hold on this continent. Which is part of the reason we picked this continent to conquer in the first place."

"Do we have statistics and numbers for casualties and deaths?" Jace asked as he crossed his arms and looked at the map of the coastal city, Neo-Magis. Which was the last occupied city on the first continent.

"We have fifty eight injured. Most of which occurred during the first city liberation. We had an easier time after realizing each city was a carbon copy of other ones. Along with the assistance of the Siren Resistance. We have no deaths and the few critical were put in stasis and will be transported back to the Underworld System for experimental treatment." The Captain of the Charon began to explain. Then nodded at Solisa, "I have been tracking our numbers."

"I have kept track of the enemy statistics and the siren statistics." Solisa declared with a trace of sadness. "The death count for the sirens is already a thousand and we have just begun."

Jace shook his head. "Part of the reason we started on this continent was because they had the lowest amount of sirens."

"I will just keep gathering data but we have not had a siren death that is a direct result of our actions yet. On the other hand we are getting a dozen enemy corpses per village and town. While in each of the cities theater is at least five hundred enemy combatants. The bodies are piling up." Solisa explained as she switched gears. "We have captured twenty-three enemy combatants, not including the group from the Democracy of Canarus."

"How many of those are just combatants and how many are commanders or people with useful intel?" Jace asked as he manipulated the map to show the base that the construction group was in the middle of building.

"We have fifteen enemy commanders and eight enemy combatants. Most other captured enemy combatants were executed as per your orders. Those ones only survived due to some oversight on our part. Should we execute them?" Solisa asked as Jace looked over the information from the construction group. Finding they were moving along quickly with construction and that several sea based landing craft had already been deployed to help attack Neo-Magis.

Jace shook his head as he read the information. "Only if they are uncooperative. Make sure to strip them of gear. As soon as we get the Democracy of Canarus’ ship-"

"We already have it." Vana jumped in with a growl of annoyance. Her ears twitching. Jace looked at her. "We have captured a dozen large enemy space craft that were likely used to traverse the space between galaxies. One of those ships is a massive Warship that was owned by the Democracy of Canarus. They were the last ship and literally surrendered when they were surrounded."

Jace nodded. "That is good. Park the ship in orbit and strip it of everything useful. We are making it a prison ship and will send it back to their galaxy. Set up stasis pods with the least revealing technology we have and make enough to house all of the prisoners we are going to be sending. Most of which will be from the Democracy of Canarus anyways." Jace explained as he shrunk the hologram so it was not focused on the base they were building.

"Who will be doing that?" Hielo asked with a scoff. "I have my hands full with the two projects in our own system. While I doubt we have nearly enough manpower to spare. The war is basically over, but most of our unit is still either in that system or on the borders of our other systems keeping an eye out for an invasion."

"Solisa-" Jace turned.

"Get the automatons and a material printer here to start the base work. By the time that is done we will have the manpower to spare. I got it, anything else?" Solisa asked as she seemed to shimmer for a moment as she simultaneously sent out some commands.

"Yeah," Jace hummed. "See if you can get a manufacturer up and running for the base we will be building here. The first thing to be built if at all possible."

Even Solisa seemed confused at that. "Why?" Vana asked.

"Because we are spread thin. We cannot keep having our military lining our borders. It would be best if we automate part of our military to make it more efficient. Not to mention we are communicating using outdated and easily hacked techniques." Jace began to explain.

"You want to create satellites or beacons as waypoints and observation technology." Hielo mumbled in understanding. "If done right it will not cost much. But how are you going to power them?"

"Let me worry about that, I recently had an idea I want to try out." Jace told them as he pulled up an incomplete design of a compact satellite that would be the size of Jace’s torso and completely cylindrical. "This is the result of that idea. It would be invisible to all except a specific tracking frequency and would expand not just the communication network but the interactive and civilian networks. Each one’s range is a medium solar system so having two in a system means all areas of a system are covered."

"What power source does it run on?" Solisa asked as she opened the hologram design up to look at the inside. "The electro-sonic technology that the Kin mentioned?"

"Sort of." Jace wavered slightly. "It is not super powerful. But the power it can provide can more than sustain the operating systems aboard the device. While the power source is only the absorption of radiation in an area it covers via the electro-sonic technology. Negligible to sensors."

"Even if it is negligible to sensors it could possibly still be spotted if someone created sensors or scanning equipment that is better than ours. What is stopping them from managing to grab one?" Shilla pointed out getting a raised eyebrow from Jace to which she responded with an eyeroll. "Never assume you have the best of everything, isn’t that the idea you like to preach?"

Jace hummed and nodded his head. "It is true, I thought of that as well. It uses my pocket dimensional technology until something specific happens. Unfortunately with all these advanced techniques comes the main issue." He turned to Hielo who nodded in understanding.

"Human error and resource management." Hielo informed them. "We cannot have the possibility of human error so each one has to be checked over before being placed. Not to mention we have to keep each of their locations classified. Then there are the resources necessary to make these satellites, we need... Well, we need a lot of things that are only made in a lab or Cerberus Forge. Most of which are being used for the gravity device. So this seems more like a long term plan."

"It is." Jace nodded. "But removing these prisoners once they are all detained will take the highest priority once this planet is retaken. So, when you can, slowly filter any manpower you can spare from either of the projects so we can refurbish the Democracy of Canarus Warship."

"Camelot, the warship is called Camelot. As for the refurbish, I can spare some ship mechanics." Vana declared as she rubbed the back of her head. "We just need to take out all weapons and unnecessary systems and replace them with stasis pods. Preferably one of their designs if they have any. We can tweak it if there is a possibility of us wasting valuable resources."

Jace hummed. "Are the space threats of the foreign galactic governments dealt with?"

"Completely. None are going to appear again for at least another year according to our long range scanners." Vana informed him. "Only this planet is left. The other locations were small outposts which were destroyed or taken with all enemy forces killed."