Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Three months, and we have only taken two of the occupied cities." Vana sighed as she looked at the massive screen of information that was in front of them. Only upper level command staff could be spared for these meetings. Most ground commanders were either in the thick of it or getting some much needed rest.

"Correction, we have infiltrated all of the cities. But we have only completely liberated two of them." Jace clarified as he yawned. "Considering how much they are dragging this out, we have done well."

"That is not how the Galactic Government feels." Solisa pointed out. "There have been multiple requests for a military or political presence. Even several independent groups have reached out with an interest in ensuring the siren people's safety."

Jace scoffed, "how did that conversation go?"

"The newly appointed Governor Oceania told them to quote, 'fuck off', unquote. They seemed taken aback. I do not think they realized that they insulted them. It will probably be awhile before they realize that the sirens are not being mistreated." Solisa informed him. "But it does bring up something else. Outside forces."

"All of the daemons are retreating or are holding up in their captured territories. The mortella have similarly holed up in their area. Retreating further back and locking down the territory they have left. The Defense fleet's counter attack cut down their territory to about half of what it once was." Hielo explained with a chuckle, "and that is with limited resources due to political infighting."

"There are also the nanoplague ships that are hanging around just on the outside of our territory in wild space." Jace pointed out. Wild space was the name for the untamable space between the Cerberus Unit's territory and the former Victorium territories. There were a variety of volatile species and spatial anomalies occupying the space, making it uncolonizable.

"I am actually starting to worry about that particular group. Do we know why they keep coming into scanning range?" Hielo asked as her hologram looked away. "Especially with how long it is taking to complete this gravity device."

"That is probably what they are waiting for." Jace answered as he scratched the back of his head. "Now that I have had time to look at everything I have learned that the Nano-plague is just an amalgamation of all the minds and personalities it absorbed. Eventually it might have leveled off eventually, but at this point it would be intelligent enough to see the writing on the wall and would have left."

"You mean like how the dark elves did?" Solisa asked.

"Speaking of dark elves." Jace sighed as he moved to stand up. "Director Fenrir informed me that they have captured a dozen or so and are interrogating them. But apparently some of the information they have disclosed includes the confirmation that some dark elves can reliably predict the future and that some of the nano-plague swarms left the galaxy."

"Some?" Hielo asked.

"Yeah, the rogue metal legion is starting to slowly recover while the Oda Empire territories have become completely closed off. The former Empress is the current representative for the territory as a whole. But apparently a fight for power has started in the territory. I am not completely aware what exactly they are doing, but they say a bunch of warmongers have risen up on each of the inhabited planets." Vana explained with a sigh. "Which reminds me, our own new territory has four inhabited planets. The Underworld System is the only one we have direct control over. What are we going to do with this one and the other two?"

"They have autonomy to a point. Solisa, how has writing up an agreement with them in mind come?" Jace asked towards the hologram.

"I have a few references. But not anything useful. Perhaps it would be better if you did this yourself?" Solisa pointed out. "I have seen your records, you have all the knowledge to write such an agreement. But the other two planets are sparsely populated colonies compared to this one, so they are more enthusiastic about the idea of having a military and policing presence. So perhaps making an agreement on each occasion would work better."

Jace sighed as he began pacing around the room. "I suppose I could. But there is something you are forgetting. I have to finish organizing the prison ship and its departure. I have to then go to the Underworld System and help with building the gravity shielding device. Then there are the-"

"We can take care of that kid." Gorund spoke up for the first time since this meeting had started. His hologram showed him currently working on a large piece of machinery. "Nothing is going to speed up just because you are looking over our shoulder. Solisa and Vana can handle the Grail remnant, they just need to know to execute all prisoners. They can also send the Democracy of Canarus ship through the Gateway when the time comes, which could be anywhere from a year to another few months. Hell, it could even be in a day or two. Myself and Hielo are no slacks, we can more than handle the Underworld System and creation of a new space station and the gravity device."

Vana sighed. "Gorund is right. You have the time. And if something happens, you are not going to be that far away. So take our political envoy vessel and a skeleton crew. Go and-"

"We have a political envoy vessel?" Jace asked in complete confusion. He never saw it on the asset lists. Which could either mean it is new or-

"Yes, it is an unarmed vessel. I can tell from your expression you do not like the idea and I honestly do not care. It was a custom made vessel with top of the line defense that gives the rest of our fleet a run for its money. The reason you never saw anything about it is because it is unarmed and the AI aboard the ship is a pacifist." Solisa explained to him.

Jace sighed before grumbling as he grabbed a data pad and began looking up information on the ship. "So I am taking this vessel, a skeleton crew, and my own personal attack craft. Then I am going to the other two colonies and establish a dialogue?" He asked as he was almost impressed at the data on the vessel, Persephone's Garden. It had triple layered shielding operating at different phases. The engine ran on a star reactor engine, one of the ones he had collected for Project Prometheus. Looks like they went out of their way to hide its existence since Jace would have likely labeled it as a waste of resources.

"So what do you think?" Solisa asked with a tone of nervousness. She was really getting good at doing that.

It could outrun any non-Cerberus spacecraft and could do a low orbit pass by a star. "Okay, I will admit. The design is incredible." Jace remarked as he looked over the engines which used concepts he touched on. While instead of utilizing a warp drive of any kind it utilized a teleportation slip stream drive. "I suppose this is the running prototype you created and have only done basic tests with?"

Solisa made a smile with her hologram otter form while Hielo looked away and Gorund grunted. Vana looked at all of them in confusion before understanding. "They want you to also take out a new toy and test it out."

"Put it through its paces." Jace sighed as he thought about what he could do to avoid this.

"Well… you did make yourself the de facto leader of our organization. So it is kind of your own fault that you have to go and do this." Vana pointed out after a moment. Jace attempted to glare at her, but she just looked back at him with a look that said, 'you dug your grave now lie in it.'

"Fine." Jace clicked out. "I will leave in a few weeks. Just make sure you remember to leave the intergalactic communication array attached to the Hand of Canarus."

"Gods, you are being a bother." Hielo scoffed and then seemed to remember something. "Which reminds me, Valkyrie and Shinobi are requesting permission to set up a branch temple on our partially built new space station."

"Only if they stay within size requirements and they utilize their own people to build it." Jace answered.

"Do you also want them to stick to the other building codes we are requiring?" Solisa asked jokingly. Jace just glanced at her before he started walking towards the exit.

"I think we are done." He told them as he left through the door but could still hear them talking back in the meeting room.

"Do you think he will realize we are forcing a vacation down his throat?" Vana asked.

"Vacation? I thought this was his vacation and we are now sending him to do actual work." Hielo countered a moment later.

"Either way, Jace can still hear you." Solisa reminded them.

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