Chapter 260: Vexical Prime: Departing the Cruiser
Jace turned back to the cylinder just in time to see the Kin move slightly forward. It then disappeared in a spark of light. It then reappeared in another spark of light outside of the tube. The Kin was in its full form and it walked up to them, each step left a burn in the shape of a skeletal foot on the metal floor. But it also left a trail of ice.
It then disappeared again and Jace could feel something along with a feeling of appreciation as it disappeared again. "Okay, time to switch gears now that that is done." Jace stepped away from the controls pulling a grenade and tossing it at the machine as he stepped out of the room. The rest of his squad followed him out. "This is Spectre Jace to Director Fenrir, please respond."
Jace then sent a message to Nila informing her that Prince Cassius had left the cruiser with the books. He then advised her to get to an airlock and get picked up by the Guardian-01 as soon as possible. It was just a feeling but he still did have a bad feeling.
"Spectre Jace, this is Fenrir. You wanted to talk?" Jace could hear Prince Trajan in the background asking a question. Seems that now that she has her son back she did not plan to let him out of her sight.
While he spoke he was also pulling up the location for the nearest airlock that was facing away from the planet. He was using their orientation from when they entered as a reference. "Yes Director, Prince Cassius left this ship and went to another one using an experimental teleportation technology."
"That also must be how he escaped the emperor’s trap. Despite his incompetence he is proving difficult to kill. Okay, what about the experimental teleportation technology? What happened to it?" The director asked as Jace began leading the way to the best airlock they could use to get out onto the hull of the ship.
Jace heard an explosion come from back where they came from. "I blew up the prototype they were using. I will plug into the panel by the airlock and erase all records and data aboard the cruiser if that is what you want. I do not have time nor the equipment to do a dissection of their data."
"Hmmm... don’t do it. We will play retrieval after the battle. We are getting odd reports at our border detection satellites. So we need to get this over with and make sure nothing is amiss." Director Fenrir explained with a growl, that was probably the first time he remembered hearing her actually growl in anger.
"Understood-" Jace suddenly stopped speaking because the entire cruiser suddenly shook and swayed. He could then faintly feel the gravity slowly begin to change like they were getting dragged forward toward the airlock they were heading toward. "Damn, we will get out via the Guardian and regroup with The Elysium."
There was a grunt and then the channel closed, a clear marking of the end to the conversation. But as Jace was contemplating this he and the others of their team were suddenly pulled forward. He let himself get pulled and landed on the airlock door. Around him the others slowed themselves down before landing around him.
Uti had a literal miniature jet pack that allowed him to slow and then land. Jul’an bounced from the floor to the roof to slow himself down. While Rook, just pulled out a knife and slid along the floor while slowing himself down by cutting into the floor.
Jace stepped over to the panel and opened it. He checked the windows that showed him the outside of the cruiser and saw that they could see the space and the intense battle that was going on outside. So the only reason the gravity could be weird like this was if something inside the cruiser had malfunctioning systems and gravity flipped inside. The door opened and they jumped down.
As the decompression process began they heard a scream and Jace looked up just in time to see a head impact the glass window of the door and explode like a watermelon. He ignored it and instead turned his attention to his boots as he activated the magnetic locking feature. Then as the door opened he stepped up and was thrown for a loop as he went from gravity pulling him one way to the completely opposite direction.
Even he needed a second to adjust before he could walk forward. He walked some distance away and then sent a digital flare that Asana on the Guardian-01 would be able to see. A moment later he was sent a message by Nila notifying him that they were boarding the Guardian now.
So Jace took a moment to survey the space battle that was above him, around him, and even below him. The Federation had already broken out their mechs that were space capable. They were setting up a defensive line formation. While the other factions were already getting into their own formations.
Prince Cassius’ ships, that had not been disabled, were all moving into a formation over where the capital used to be on Vexical Prime. It was not a strong position since he had clearly lost half of his ships from the betrayal of the Tyranus Society.
The Tyranus Society, the only group without a solid leader at the moment, had moved into low orbit and was using the planet’s population as a hostage. Which was why there were plenty of attack craft and fighter craft flying around it.
Then there was the emperor’s loyalist faction which included only one of the ships that had originally been in orbit. Along with the Warships The Elysium and Admiral Dakota’s Nightfall of Requiem. The Venture had yet to make it into orbit. While the other ships were slower than the warships and had yet to arrive.
With that the battle had been summed up and broken down. As Jace was thinking this while looking at the battlefield, something not even he expected had happened.