Chapter 331: Change of Pace
Jace sighed as he looked out the front window of the ship. "Have they answered yet?" Jace asked as he looked at the holographic puck that was in the center of the ship’s cargo area. They were all looking at it waiting for the connection to be established.
They were connecting to the High Priestess for their next set of orders that would hopefully result in something a bit more entertaining than just clearing Whisper buildings and scouting military facilities. They had done all they could in the New Hexarian Republic, aside from the Kitinol Line which would be the last thing they would take when they conquered this space.
"Nope." Rook chuckled, "We are on the edge of Republic space. Basically at the farthest reaches of Vexical communication range. Then there is the Imperium, they basically have communication jammers all along the edge of their territories. It makes sense that they are taking a while to establish a secure connection." He pointed out from his spot near a workbench.
"Then there is the conversion into the Victorium network. That is probably still ongoing as well." Uti grunted as he faced the workbench and sparks went off in front of him. He got an idea for a weapon and was working on it.
"The point is-" Rook started but stopped when he realized the hologram was beeping. "Oh it is connecting now."
Then the hologram lit up and the High Priestess appeared in a full dress form. "Cerberus Squad. Thank you for completing your primary and secondary missions. Now that it is done the invasion will commence. But first it appears the republic intends to boost their own morale. They are doing a very public parade with their Titan-Class Mech."
"What is the plan for us? Are we meeting you there for the attack?" Jace asked as he moved into the cargo hold. Hoping for some action. He was fine with the covert stuff but he felt like he needed to really let loose and soon.
"No, I want Cerberus Squad to get to the capital planet where they are doing the parade. They plan to send off the Titan-Class Mech along with a number of ships to invade Vexical Space. Most of the fleet is already near the border and will be destroyed at the same time that you should be attacking the parade." The High Priestess declared.
Jace sighed as he cracked his neck. "Can we let loose after we finish our objectives?" Jace asked as he looked over at the boxes of his equipment.
"We were actually hoping you would. We only have three required objectives for the mission. The first is the assassination of the Titan-Class Mech pilot, in addition to being its pilot he is supposed to be an exceptional commander as well. The second is disabling the Titan-Class Mech, we do not want another pilot to take up the mantle. But do not completely destroy it, our people want a chase to study and reverse engineer the mech. The third is the assassination of the Republic’s political and military leaders. The majority of them are gathering on Hex for the parade. After all that is done you can do what you want." She informed them and then continued with her warning, "just keep in mind that we will not arrive for at least a few days. So you are going to be on your own until such a time as the first ship reaches the planet."
Jace nodded as a plan started forming in his mind. He looked at the others and then nodded, "is that it?"
"One last thing, do you happen to know where the Union unit you encountered went?" The High Priestess asked. She was probably covering all of her basses in case there was a spy listening in or anything else.
"No we did not, we let them go. Then it looked like they did a blind jump out of the system as fast as they could." Asana explained as she moved to the pilot seat and started moving the ship on a course for the Republic’s capital planet.
"Then do not worry about it. Hopefully we will be able to pick up the trail when we get further into the system." The High Priestess sighed. "We were hoping to get the information from the broker but he did not back down and sent our people packing."
"Criminal info broker? Yeah you do not want to mess with one of those. They do not mess around when it comes to keeping their information secure." Jace chuckled. "It would be a better idea to just pay for the information. But if you tried to take it by force already there is no point to do that anymore. They hold grudges like nothing else." Jace did have some experience with information brokers.
When he was younger learned a lot from an information broker...that he was hired to torture. For one thing, kidnapping or threatening an information broker for information usually got to other brokers and they would steer clear of the culprit. That or hand out information freely on the culprit. Sometimes even going out of the way to give the culprit’s enemies information on them. It all added up to paint a picture, making enemies of information brokers was a fast way to get your legs kicked out from under you.
He learned a bunch of other stuff from that information broker as well. Like how to catch an information broker’s eye to get free information. How a lot of things worked like material printing machines. As well as how to get experience in areas that would be good for the military.
Apparently he had impressed that broker with his talent for torture despite his young age. Which was why he volunteered all the information that Jace later found useful. It was also why he had the people who came to rescue him spare Jace. Unfortunately, he did not stop the following beating that Jace felt for a month afterwards.
"Is that all?" Jace asked.
"That is all. Happy hunting Cerberus." The High Priestess image then cut off and Jace flicked his hand and the hologram puck disabled. He turned it off remotely.
"So what is the plan?" Nila asked as she moved to her stored equipment.
Jace smirked as he looked over at his armor. "We are going to cause some chaos."