Chapter 343: Start of a Vacation
Jace cleaned his tools while humming while the soldiers unhooked and pulled down Prince Cassius. He had spent the last two days extracting all the information he could out of the prince. While the information he provided was annoying, Jace was feeling more relaxed now that he had gotten that out of the way.
He looked over at Nila as she walked in. She looked at the Prince who looked better than before. "I thought you were going to torture him."
"A big negative of the system are the various types of drugs that can work with it. Some of the failed versions I find are useful for torture." Jace told her as he grabbed a stack of notes and a voice recorder. Handing them over to her.
"It has blood on it." Nila pointed out and Jace gave her a look of confusion.
"Of course it does, I was not gentle." He then nodded at a large container that was sitting off to the side. "You are going to want someone to dispose of that. It is excess blood and bones that I pulled from the prince."
Nila made an expression that Jace figured was confusion. "I thought humans cannot regenerate bones?"
"We can’t." Jace chuckled as he finished cleaning his tools and wrapped them up. Tossing the cloth he was using in the same bucket of blood and bones. "But we can live with some removed. It just will not be as comfortable." Jace explained as Nila shook her head.
"Okay. Do you have an idea what is waiting for us in the Echo System? I have been told we are undergoing a long term training. I heard there are a total of twenty nonhumans going for the experimental treatment and training. They are calling it the Tartarus II Program." Nila explained as they walked out of the room. Nila sent a quick message through her communication device as she did.
"Makes sense. The original Tartarus Program is something to help chosen nanohumans to enhance their stats and abilities. The development was likely an offshoot of that program when we realized we would have some nonhuman allies that were not even genetically similar." Jace explained as he moved with her into the cramped underground hallway. They were deep under the Victorium Administration building.
"So what exactly am I going to be doing once I have the nanosystem that you have?" Nila asked as she clicked a button to call the elevator down to their level. The guards escorting the prince were taking a different entrance.
"In theory you will have the same system. But when you get it you will have to bring your stats to the maximum. Once it reaches that you will have to push your granted abilities and talents to a greater level of understanding. Then after that you will begin your evolution process." Jace explained as the elevator arrived. He stepped inside with her.
She pressed the button for one of the higher floors and then looked at him, "which floor?"
"Parking level one. I moved everything to a large storage vehicle. I already bought a building near the edge of the city that looks over the race track. I am going to spend my vacation working on some theoretical ideas that I have been playing with. Then maybe I will try out some of those races. They seem like they could be fun." Jace declared as the elevator began rising.
"Hmmm... good luck with that. I am sure you are going to be bored with civilian life for the next few months." Nila cackled as the elevator arrived at the Parking garage floor.
The door opened up and in the elevator lobby were a few people in business suits that were waiting in front of another elevator. They looked over as Jace stepped out and began moving over. "That one is for Military Personal only." Jace informed them as he blocked their path.
"What? It is just an elevator!" One of the younger ones said. He looked to be just out of his teenage years.
Jace waited until the elevator door closed before moving out of their way. They went to hit a button but realized there was not a spot for the button. By the time they turned to Jace he was already outside walking toward his vehicle. It was near the side of the room.
It was a wheeled truck with a large bed. There was only room for a driver seat; the rest of the vehicle was just a truck bed used for transport. So at the moment it was covered in a covered cloth that was hiding the numerous amounts of expensive materials and pieces of equipment he had brought.
But as he approached it he chuckled at the sight. Cho was sitting on her haunches looking at him with excitement. While sitting next to Cho was Cain who was looking like his usual expressionless mechanical Doberman expression.
"I was expecting Cho... but you too Cain. I thought Director Fenrir still had a need for you for the special projects division?" Jace asked as he tossed the bundle of tools in an empty spot on the truck.
"I am all done. I was coming to join you anyway when Solisa informed me that you were going on forced vacation. Which must drive you nuts with what everyone is calling the Vexical War in full swing." Cain declared as he jumped up in an empty spot near the driver cabin. Cho hopped up next to him.
"How about Solisa? What is she doing? Or is being stuck on the Venture driving her nuts?" Jace asked as he climbed into the driver cabin.
"She was annoyed she would not be able to observe more of your growth but asked me to come watch in her place... and to make a recording." Cain confessed as Jace hit a button and the vehicle rumbled to life.
Jace smirked as he pulled out of the parking space and drove to the parking garage’s exit. There was a gate and a guard who held up his hand to stop him. It is a Mar’talic in one of the ceremonial uniforms. He likely had to wear it because of his outward facing guard position. But another pair of guards in armor, a human, and an ola came over to his driver window.
He rolled it down with a button. He then held out his squad’s emblem on a hexagonal piece of metal. The Cerberus. The guard scanned it with a device and then saluted. "I apologize for stopping you... um... sir." He took a moment because technically now that Spectre had been revealed as a race they could not use that as his military position. Putting him in a state of rank limbo since he was the squad leader of a classified team.
"It is protocol. Do not worry about it." Jace chuckled as he pulled back his emblem and pocketed it.
"You are going on Victorium enforced vacation. You are lucky, I saw a number of Vexical Military soldiers get forced into year long vacations. By Victorium standards we are far too blood thirsty. But a bunch of them, myself included, are getting around it by getting permanently stationed." The human guard explained.
"That is because you should serve per deployment and then take a break. Not go from station to station of deployment for constant work. How you humans have managed to keep your population up is a mystery." The ola guard chuckled and Jace realized for the first time that it was a female ola.
"A woman at each port." Jace joked. Getting a confused look from the ola while the human burst into laughter.
"He means you knock up a woman at each station of deployment and then move on." The human guard explained as he stopped laughing.
"I thought humans mated for life. From what I understand you have a tradition of marriage which binds two people." The ola looked between them.
"That applies to people who only want that kind of life. That consists of about ten percent of the Vexical population. From what I understand it is a higher percentage in other human countries. But the Vexical people are a bit more... free." Jace shrugged. "Although in other countries they have that whole slavery thing going on."
"Haa... I need to read those pamphlets on interacting with humans a bit more." The ola shook her head and walked to the gate. The human laughed and followed her. The ola waved and the mar’talic opened the gate.
Jace drove forward through the gate and onto the private road that was surrounding the Administration building. He drove up onto a ramp, having to slow down immediately because construction had begun on these roads. He would have to look up to see what they were doing. Because the roads were not made for the Victorium and with the way the city was designed it was going to be a headache to remodel it for the Victorium vehicles.