Space Odyssey: Spectre
Chapter 195 - 195: Taboo Work

Jace stepped into the elevator as injured soldiers were carried off quickly. It looked like at one point it was a nice elevator that was used for honored guests. But now it had been torn apart and had a window looking out at the city that had several scorched holes in it. The seats had been torn up from the floor and were pushed to act as cover by the windows. There were three windows.

One window was out looking at the city, while the others were on either side. The ones had far less damage on them. Jace walked toward the large window and saw an explosion in the distance. It was followed by an entire building collapsing near the explosion.

Jace glanced back as the elevator doors closed. He looked around at the other soldiers that were in here with them. He would say it was a single squad worth of soldiers. But they were likely from various different units because the indicators were showing a mix of answers.

They were being sent to the city to support another force that needed assistance. Taking the place of the injured soldiers that had just gotten off.

"Spectre Jace, this is Gladal, it appears that we have lost contact with the soldiers we sent to the entertainment district. We will hold off on sending more soldiers until you get there." Gladal was the Ola in charge of communications. He was coordinating with several others to get messages between commanding officers. Jace had stopped and talked with him for a bit. Jace managed to get all of the communication channels he would need and how they communicate and he passed on his own communication channel as well as the one for the Cerberus Squad.

"Understood." Jace answered and then a moment later an indicator on his HUD popped up. It showed that Charlie's armor had been damaged. "Cerberus Squad, are you almost to the ship that is on the roof?"

"We are already here. We are getting packed away now. We are just taking fire from enemies who followed us up." Charlie was the one that answered. "They caught us off guard. We will be out of communication range when we leave the atmosphere, do you want us to grab anything from the ship for you?"

"Negative, the area where the jamming device is possibly located is a dark zone with no communication. Do not land inside it." Jace informed them as the elevator shuddered and began slowly descending. "I am making my way down to the city now."

"Understood." Charlie answered and Jace then turned down the channel as he focused on his present. He looked out the large window.

"Hey you are one of those new human allies we got?" Jace turned to look at a blue skinned four armed creature.

Jace nodded, "I am. Was there something I could help you with?"

"Well I was just curious-"

CRISSH! GEERCH!

The elevator jolted and creaked as it suddenly stopped. A few of the soldiers who were moving around fell. But those who were standing on two feet managed to catch themselves. The elevator creaked and groaned for a moment before it began moving down again.

"What was that?" Jace asked openly as the elevator began moving again.

"I have been on this elevator only a few times since this whole thing began. But each time it gets worse and worse." The blue skinned creature explained. "I think it is starting to reach its limit."

"You were saying something?" Jace asked.

"Umm… yeah. How many people did you bring to support us?" The blue skinned creature asked.

"I am not at liberty to say. But we did bring enough to take this planet back." Jace answered, "if you do not mind me asking, what species are you? I only managed to get familiar with a few. But I do not recall seeing yours the few times I fought Victorium forces."

"You wouldn't either, we Welches prefer to be on the defending side of a battle. So we are usually guards or under the command of a commander who defends a point or location." The Welch explained.

"But I have seen a few of your kind on the enemy side," Jace tilted his head slightly.

"That is because by our standards they are defending this planet from traitors. It is a bit… construed and strange. But that is what happens when a group like the Elder Council goes mad with power." The Welch explained with a shrug.

"They are not the only race that the Elder Council tried to sway with flawed logic." An Ola spoke up from the center of the elevator where it was sitting on the floor. "They told the Ola that we would get to continue to serve our betters if we sided with them."

"I am getting the feeling that this Elder Council is growing desperate." Jace pointed out as he looked out the window again as an indicator on his HUD showed the location of the rest of his squad. They were flying toward the Venture that was in the distance. Fortunately they were unpursued by missiles or the few enemy craft that were flying around.

"You could say that." A Tacole spoke up from the corner of the elevator where he was cleaning what looked like a large two handed battle axe but had clear modifications so it could fire something out of the head of the axe. "Before the Sima's short attempt at a Civil War, I heard they garnered the Elder Council's favor by doing some Taboo work on ancestral weapons and machines."

"Taboo work?" Jace asked.

"I cannot speak to it myself. But Taboo work means defacing something created by the ancestors. They are only supposed to study the technology and use it in its original form. Then there is turning it into explosives or disposable weapons, that is also taboo. The biggest taboo is enslaving one of the ancestors' creations." A Hydragentia spoke up this time, she was leaning up against the elevator doors. This chapter was made possible by the NovelFire community.

"Ancestors' creations?" Jace thought for a moment, "you mean the Artificial Intelligences. I saw personally that the Sima already did that, so there is a good chance that is what they did for the Elder Council."

The Hydragentia shook its head, "the Elder Council is unfortunately made up of a bunch of retired soldiers and inventors who are a little too interested in political power. Now it has all gone to their head."

The Welch started speaking with what sounded like a chuckle. "Well fortunately the humans-"

ZING! ZING! ZING!