Space Odyssey: Spectre

"We are in orbit of Poppy Teal, that is a weird naming scheme." Officer Neuman announced with a sigh. "That was exhausting."

They had been on high alert for the last ten minutes. Essentially balancing on a wire while they tried to survive the asteroids that littered this system. "Umm… Sian, can you beam the message down to the planet asking for permission to land?"

"I will." Officer Sian agreed as he took a moment before he began to send the message.

Jace hummed as he paced around to look at their screens after a few moments he walked over and adjusted the shield frequency. Captain Neslie sighed as she watched him input the information. "So how did we do?"

"Good enough." Jace answered.

"We have a response. A landing zone and a message stating, 'Permission Granted.'" Officer Sian informed them when their console beeped.

"Bring us down." Jace ordered.

"You heard the commander." Captain Neslie agreed. The ship began to lower down into the atmosphere. There was a lot less heat upon entry because the layer of atmosphere was much thinner.

"Readings show that the atmosphere is partially breathable. But it would be a good idea to utilize a breathing device just in case." Officer P'lice informed him.

"I will do so." Jace agreed as he moved towards the back of the ship. Stopping by a storage room to grab an emergency breathing mask. They were readily available in case they landed on a low oxygen atmosphere planet or the life support systems malfunctioned. As he moved to the ramp door he could already feel the slight pull of the light gravity. The ship landed softly and bounced for a moment before the atmospheric barrier activated just above the ramp door.

Jace hit the button and it began to open as he fitted the breathing mask over his mouth and walked down past the atmospheric barrier. He barely made it down a few feet when he could pick up the sound of heavy running coming from inside the ship. As he made his way to the bottom of the ramp he could see a set of people walking towards them with weapons in hand, they looked like long barreled shotguns.

"Commander, we have a problem." Officer Neuman approached him with a data pad in hand.

Jace turned but before he could say anything he spotted one of the people leveling the shotgun on them. "Neuman, cover." He quickly ordered before dashing to the side and out of sight. A hexagonal blue wall of light formed.

Bang!

The buckshot bounced off the shielding that formed when Neuman put up his arm. "Sirs and Madams, may I know the reason for your aggressive attack?"

"Shut up, you damn box of spare parts!" The man in front had a breathing apparatus and gray hair but he also had plenty of visible scars on his body and deformations that were likely from living on this planet for so long.

"Jacque! We talked about this." A young woman pushed the man's gun down while the third person, an old woman, hobbled forward.

"Hehehe…" The old woman chuckled. "It is fine. They do not care." She turned and looked toward Jace. "You move swiftly, Commander Jace Wintry." She bowed her head calmly before looking at the old man. "This is old farmer Jacque, young Governor Iliana, and I am Elder Masaba. I was expecting you."

Jace frowned as he moved forward. "You are not probing my mind so you are not a telepath and you are not technology advanced enough to be using some technology so that leaves something old." He hummed as he walked up to them. "I am guessing… some type of mystic with a set of actual powers?"

Elder Masaba nodded, "I do indeed. I am a nanohuman with future predictive powers."

"Commander," Neuman kept the shield up but approached them before tossing the data pad and Jace caught it and opened it to look at the contents. "A large fleet of kitinol bug pods are coming through the field of asteroids. It appears the kitinol have started their swarming."

"Hmm…" Jace nodded. "What is with the hostility?"

"You will have to forgive old farmer Jacque, the original settlers were sent here during the Rogue Metal Legion rebellion. They are hostile toward robots and artificial intelligence." Governor Iliana explained as she stepped forward and shook Jace's hand.

"Understandable. But they will have to get over it." Jace told her as he looked at the specific information. "The Cerberus Unit now has control over this system and a few other neighboring systems and we have a large number of Artificial Intelligence inhabitants."

"You must be a moron if you trust these things!" The old farmer growled out in annoyance.

"Actually it is the other way." Neuman declared proudly. "We both fear and implicitly trust Commander Jace. He is many things but a moron is not one of them."

"Fear? And trust?" Governor Iliana spoke in confusion. "How is that possible?"

"Fear because he can easily make new artificial intelligence which also means he can easily create a way to kill all of us if he so wished. Trust because he talks with us in our natural language." Officer Neuman explained to them before turning to Jace. "But we need to talk about the situation at hand. The kitinol seem to have picked this system as their next nesting sight."

"Nesting sight?" Governor Iliana asked in confusion.

"Grr- they mean the kitinol plan to permanently extend this system into their territory." The old farmer began to explain. "It happened thirty years ago during an age of strife. They caused irreparable damage and swallowed up three nations and fractured one."

"Wait, I thought the kitinol line-"

"It moves slowly. But it has also been fluctuating both ways in recent years. But the central kitinol hive must have sensed that the forces along its borders have been lighter tha usual in some parts." Jace explained with a sigh. He nodded at the ship. "Go take the Persephone's Garden up and to the edge of the system. Send a signal to the Underworld System letting them know."

"Do we have to worry about the kitinol?" Governor Iliana asked in shock.

"No, we do not have to worry about the kitinol my child." Elder Masaba chuckled. "The bouncing asteroids are tearing those pods apart as we speak. Nothing normal could get to our planet."

Officer Neuman bowed his head as Jace waved him off. "Now then, shall we talk?" He asked as the ramp to the ship began to move up. "Although I think we should move this conversation elsewhere."

"Come along young Jace." Elder Masaba began to slowly hobble with her cane down the hill they had climbed up to get them to the ship. At the bottom was the entrance to the nearest village where it appeared a pair of guards were located.

"Young Jace?" The governor asked as she followed them and then the old farmer grumbled as they followed them as well. "Why are you calling him young?"

"Because Jace is just as young as you are, in fact he might be younger," the elder chuckled.

"How he is so…" Governor Iliana seemed at a loss for words.

"He is a soldier." The old farmer spoke up. "How long?"

"I served in the Vexical Empire's war against the Victorium. I served in the Vexical Empire's civil war. Then I served in the intergalactic war with plenty of covert operations in between. But I assume that means only so much to you so where do I have to start talking to get to the reason for the contract with our group?" Jace asked as he looked over the farms and the small town in the center of the bubble of shielding.

"What do we get out of working with your people?" The old farmer asked.

"You could have asked nicer. But yeah, what happens in the outside world is not as important as what we could get out of working with you." Governor Iliana pointed out.

"You are right." Jace agreed as he handed her the data pad with a contract in her specific dialect. "To start we will protect you and establish a military base just outside of the system. We will also establish a trade station you can utilize to grow trade and gather information."

"That assumes we have a way off this planet young'un." The old farmer pointed out as they approached the gate to the developed land. The farmer waved at the guards and they moved to push open the heavy looking metal doors. It looks like they had been reforged from something else.

"We can provide that. We can also provide you with an injection of external resources to expand your business and prevent any… annoying side effects of living here." Jace explained to them as he checked his tank of air.

"We adapt to the world." Governor Iliana declared. "We do not adapt this world to us."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!