Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 45: Invasion of Oculus

Jace woke up to the sound of an alarm blaring as well as his communication device ringing with its emergency notification noise. He quickly sat up, getting rid of the soreness in his body while the fleshy body of Elena came awake next to him as well.

"What's with the noise?" Elena asked as she covered her head in a pillow.

"It is the emergency alarm in case of an invasion or attack. It is time to get up, I have to get to the base and figure out what is going on. You should go to your designated shelter, by that I mean call your father and figure it out." Jace explained as he hopped out of bed and pulled up his discarded clothes from last night. Quickly putting them on.

"Shit! Okay, stay safe. If we were at my place you would have gotten there more quickly." Elena complained as she jumped out of bed and began putting on her own clothes.

"The hotel was fine, I just did not want your mom or dad coming in on us again." Jace responded as he pulled on his shirt before checking his communication device. "Looks like we have only five minutes until the estimated landfall."

"Okay, I get it you don't want to have my parents walk in on us mid thrust. But we could have done it at the base instead?" She pointed out as they were nearly done getting dressed.

"But then I would have been tempted to work and I needed to relax." Jace countered as he double checked everything before looking over at Elena who was walking over to join him. "You good?"

"Yes, I can get a taxi or something. See ya later!" They exited the rooms and walked in opposite directions; she was going to the elevator while Jace was sprinting toward the stairwell. As soon as he arrived at the door he was barging through and jumping down the rail doing some movements so every second floor he was landing and then jumping down again.

He continued like this until he got to the third sublevel where his speeder was parked. Running out into the area he saw there were a lot more cars here then when they had first arrived.

Jace ran over to his speeder and jumped on. It powered up with a rumble and he was off. Quickly flying through and out of the sublevels and onto the chaotic street, where it almost looked like a riot was taking place with all the looters and people screaming.

The streets were packed with vehicles all heading toward central areas of the station. Making it easy for him to speed along the driving paths. The wind whipped through his hair and he got an amazing view of space and the dockyards… unfortunately it was spoiled by a mysterious warship that seemed to have war paint splashed on it in no particular order.

Steel connected his communication device to the Desert Dogs network. As soon as he was connected he could hear the chaos as his commanding officer was giving orders. "Cadet Steel, when you return to base get armored up and then come to the dockyards. There will be a vehicle on standby for you. Make sure you bring your sword, it is the Victorium."

Her words sent a chill down his spine. "Understood Corporal Tani." Steel responded as he sped up. The Victorium ship looked different this time, but it might be for some reason he did not know. As he raced down the freeway he could see pillars of smoke and small puffs of fire in the distance.

Seems he would be late to the fighting. He arrived at the gate as several heavy duty jeeps were pulling out of the gate packed with a few of the squads. Even some members of his own squad. He zipped in between the vehicles, quickly flying past the open gate. Where a few guards in heavy gear were stationed as well as setting up defensive barricades.

A guard yelled at him but he ignored them as he sped through the base. Passing engineers preparing or repairing vehicles. Soldiers double checking their gear and staff running around moving equipment. He arrived at his garage which was opening up for him as he arrived.

He quickly parked his speeder bike on its charger. As he jumped off it Solisa appeared swimming around. She seemed almost shy with her movements.

"Sorry I did not predict this." Solisa pulled up the image of the battlefield. "We are holding them back for the moment but it appears this… clan from the Victorium skipped several other bases and specifically picked this location."

"Do we know why?" Cadet Steel asked as he started pulling together his equipment. Good thing he had it prepared ahead of time.

"Not yet, if you get me connected to their ship I can hack into their communication network and discover the reason. But you first have to infiltrate their ship. I will however translate what I have heard from the attackers and attempt to make sense of it." Solisa declared as the hologram disappeared.

"Good, where is my squad stationed?" Steel asked as he pulled on his helmet, getting a click and then began reaching for his weapons. An assault rifle, a pistol, and his sword. He was going through double checking all his gear when a vehicle pulled up outside.

It was a Jeep with Wise and Feathertail, it seems he was riding with them. In the back was an abundance of medical supplies as well as some heavy ordinance. Once he was done he walked up and jumped into the rear of the vehicle as he could hear the garage close behind him.

He was instantly connected to the communication channel and could hear the other squads calling out to each other. Then he heard a ding as he, Wise, and Feathertail were pulled into a new channel. "This is Solisa, it appears your squads are scattered throughout the frontline. Since your squad was off duty you are being treated as communication between commanding officers."

"Tani told me to just head to the front but did not give me a specific destination." Wise pointed out as she quickly sped up to the gate that no longer had a train of trucks blocking the entrance.

"That is because they were establishing a base camp. But now they are having to establish it further back from the front line. But they need those armaments and medical supplies where the bulk of the fighting is. I will direct you there." Solisa declared as she disappeared from the channel. Likely to talk with someone else.

Wise sped the Jeep down the road. There were far fewer vehicles on the road now. It seems the evacuation was successful. There was a single vehicle that was going the opposite way, it appeared to be transporting injured civilians. It was likely on route to a civilian hospital. The injured soldiers would be at the defensive point or near it in a hospital tent.

Then he spotted what he was looking for. The line where our people were holding the enemy back. It seemed the enemy's Cruiser-class ship had entered into the dockyard and landed directly onto the land instead of hovering.

The dockyards were typically used for moving cargo to and from the private vessels. There were several different parts of the dockyards. There are the privately owned docks which have security but also have minimal occupants. Then there are the public dockyards where a temporary docking fee is required. Then there is the second-largest section which is where the military typically dock and it is protected and controlled by the military, usually it has a base attached but this station had a private military station instead.

He could see from his current location that the military vehicles and the private military group, Red Sanix, were deploying through the military dockyard to combat two other cruisers. But on the other side of the dockyards was the location where the Victorium ship crashed.

It crashed in the commercial dockyards. It was reserved for private vessels that were focused on transporting goods. So as long as it was not a military based company the goods went through the commercial dockyard. But in landing it had caused the docked ships to be damaged. It was also heavily populated at all times.

He could see the vehicles and rubble they were using as blockades while on the other side the Victorium were using metal shields as cover. Seemed they came with the desire and preparations for a ground battle.

As they got closer they stopped at the tent with a red cross on it. Feathertail climbed out and Steel helped him place a few of the first aid supplies outside. Then he climbed back in and they were off again.

There was a ding again as Solisa popped back on their channel. "All units are to be prepared for hand-to-hand combat. This species favors explosive ordinance and large melee weapons."

The groups of humans were being hedged in behind overturned vehicles. Then he flinched as he saw large projectiles heading their way. Steel quickly pulled out his rifle and fired several shots causing both Wise and Feathertail to flinch.

BOOM!