Space Odyssey: Spectre
Chapter 194 - 194: General Plaze

Jace tossed aside the heavy weapon and walked out of the building. Moving straight toward his new allies who were firing from what he could only describe as a trench. He tilted his body and moved to the side as a few bolts and globs of plasma sailed past him.

He stopped and crouched at the edge of the trench. Looking down at a Mar'talic who seemed to have some type of markings he was not seeing on the others. So he must be a commander or at least in charge of someone. "Hey you, take me to the current leader of your group." Jace used the auto translation for the Victorium common language.

The Mar'talic flinched and then held a hand up to the side of its helmet and tilted its head as it seemed to be talking with someone.

Jace felt an impact on his back. He turned around to see several enemies running toward them. He pulled out his Pyre and fired only once before his gun clicked. The bullet caused an enemy Accer's head to snap back before it collapsed. He had used up another magazine for his Pyre.

Jace began reloading and tilted his body. Dodging another shot from the enemy. One of his new allies, an Ola popped his head out and fired a rifle. Hitting a few of the enemies. Jace finished reloading and fired a few times.

"Come with me." The Mar'talic told him. It then began walking through the trench. Jace jumped down into the trench and holstered his Pyre. There were a few turns until they arrived at one of the cannon emplacements he saw at the edge of this raised area when he flew in.

Standing at a table giving out orders to a few others was an Accer. The Accer turned to him using the auto translator device. "You human, who are you and how did you get here?"

"I am part of the joint military vessel. I came in on the transport to extract the VIPs that were being protected here. I have achieved that part of the objective. I am now doing another objective. You would not happen to know where the jamming device is located?" Jace asked as he looked around.

"Joint military vessel? I see… it seems the High Priestess was holding all of her cards back even from her allies. Although considering what happened, I would say that was wise." The Accer spoke out loud like it was thinking while talking. "My name is General Plaze." He introduced himself.

"Spectre Jace. The Jamming device?" Jace tried again.

"Umm, yeah. The VIPs were extracted?" The Accer General asked as it waved at the table. It was a simple table with a paper map on it.

"Affirmative. They should be out of danger aboard the Venture. But you should not expect any reinforcements until they destroy all enemy vessels or we destroy the jamming device." Jace informed him.

"I am getting reports from multiple sources of three different heavily fortified locations. This one is the central terminal for the underground high speed transportation system. We usually move goods through there. It is typically unsafe for people to be aboard those when it is moving at those speeds. This is the Elder Council's Fortress, it was created to contain all of the Ancestors unfathomable machines and technology. It is also the reason for this civil war, they did not want to give up the control and possession they have over such a large arsenal of weapons and knowledge. Then there's this spaceport, it houses the largest fleet of spaceships available on the planet. Fortunately the hangars were locked down. So while they possess the spaceport, they are unable to get to the spaceships." The Accer General explained as he pointed to various positions on the map where there were a number of figurines.

Jace frowned and pointed to an empty space on the map. "We were getting the jamming signal from this region."

General Plaze frowned as he looked at the part of the map he was indicating. "That is… the entertainment district? There is nothing of importance over there." He then looked over at an Ola who was talking quickly into a device. General Plaze asked something toward the Ola, the Ola looked over and then picked up what looked like their version of a datapad and began looking through it. The Ola then responded while shaking its head.

"Something wrong?" Jace asked as he watched the General yell out something. He was not fluent enough in their language yet.

"Yes," Plaze sighed as he pulled out something and made a circle motion over the entertainment district. On the map a blue circle appeared around the entertainment district that he mentioned. "We are supposed to have scouts watching the various sectors but it appears that the scouts in the entertainment district have gone quiet for over half a day."

"How does 'that' slip your notice?" Jace asked with a soft chuckle.

"We were so busy with taking back key positions like the Council's Landing, it slipped through the cracks. I am sure it is not the only one." Plaze explained with a sigh. "If you are heading there I would appreciate it if you can back up the soldiers I am sending that way. I cannot make it a priority until I finish here." The General explained with a sigh.

"Sounds good to me. Just warn your troops that I am coming. Well that and tell me how I can differentiate between friendlies and enemies." Jace asked as he stood straight and scanned the map on the table with a function on his helmet.

General Plaze grunted and then pulled something out from under his armored uniform. "It is a tag we wear around our necks, we had to improvise on the fly so I had my troops fall back on an old tradition. We no longer use it usually, but we need a way to differentiate between friend and foe as well. If you can scan for these tags you will find people with it are allies." The General then put away the tag after a moment.

Jace had already scanned the tag and now he was finding several friendly indicators on his HUD. It was different from the people in the tower. Because they were expecting them and had been using the human method of friend or foe indication. "How about civilians?"

"A lot of them died when the Elder council loyalists attacked. But we were able to get most of them out of the city where most of the fighting is occurring." He then seemed to think for a moment, "Although there may be more in the entertainment district since we lost our scouts there. So just be cautious to check before you shoot." General Plaze then nodded toward an area where some injured soldiers were working on weapons and others were handing them out. "Feel free to grab a weapon before I send you down an elevator to the ground level. It will be back up here in a few minutes."

Jace nodded and waved as he left toward the impromptu armory. He looked around for a few moments at the various weapons before he picked up an elongated weapon that looked like a rifle. He looked over it both visually and with his schematic ability.

"That is a plasma shard sniper rifle. It needs to cool off every three shots, it then needs to be reloaded with plasma cartridges every nine shots." A Hydragentia that was missing the lower half of its body and one of its arms explained. Jace clicked a part and the barrel expanded exposing the internal barrel for a moment before closing back up. "That is how you cool off the barrel after three shots." He then clicked another and the iron sights over what he guessed was the firing chamber. Inside was a cylinder of what he was guessing was the plasma. "That is how you change out cartridges. There is also a function that allows our armor to connect to the gun so we have a scope but-"

"I can get my armor to do something similar." Jace assured the Hydragentia before he grabbed three more plasma cartridges and put them in open pockets. "How many weapons use these plasma cartridges?"

"Several, you should not have to worry about finding ammunition out there." The Hydragentia waved its hand. "But be cautious of overheating, unlike a lot of our weapons. That will explode in your hands if you fire it too much, but it should penetrate most weak to medium armor, you will need two shots or one well placed one for Elites."

"You mean the stronger soldiers, I noticed. I would say this is to the standard of a Vexical Lethal weapon." Jace familiarizes himself with the feel of the weapon.

"Vexical Lethal weapon?" The Hydragentia asked. Jace pulled out his Pyre and handed it to the Hydragentia. It looked it over and held the weapon then it cocked the barrel and smelled the firing chamber. "How barbaric… but effective. Weaponized dust particles. I am only familiar with these in its more volatile missile, rocket, or explosive form." It then flipped the gun in its hand before giving it back, "I see what you mean by Lethal, this would guarantee a fatal injury or death if it hit the right spot."

Jace smirked under his helmet. He was starting to get the feeling that Hydragentia's would be more amenable to human weapons technology then the other Victorium species.