Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 418: Searching Fuji-8

Jace watched as Uti cut through the bridge door. As soon as he was through the locking mechanism it slid open. The bridge was mostly empty. But there were two bodies in the room. Or rather a body and half another body.

Laying right by the entrance was the lower half of a human in what was probably a crew member of this ship. It looked like the top half of the body was just disintegrated from the scorched bloody stump where the top half should have been. It seemed to have just been left on the ground after being killed.

Then on the captain’s chair was another body. The captain of the ship was slowly spinning on the chair. He was skewered through the chest and was stuck to the chair. The expression of surprise was still on his face.

They were clearly attacked in a surprise attack that they never had a chance against. It was also likely the reason that so many people were missing. They managed to capture so many people in a short amount of time.

Captain Uti walked up to a console and began tapping away at it. Waking it up completely. It appears that it had already been logged into and was left open. While he did that Jace looked around the room and watched Specialist Gorund groan as he pulled open a console and began looking at wires. Doctor Foulm took readings of the dead bodies. Corporal Quest walked to the windows of the bridge and began looking at them.

Jace took stock of what he could see and what they could not see. Then he nodded and walked over to Doctor Foulm. "What do you have for me Doc?"

"He is definitely the captain of the Fuji-8, Captain Jaun Lee. His death was immediate. Clearly caused by this spear but his insides were cooked while he was alive. It was like someone flash cooked him by shoving a sun in his chest. I cannot account for the weapon but the reason he does not look so bad is because he was cooked through and through." Doctor Foulm explained with a sigh.

Jace frowned and looked over to Gorund. "Do you have anything Specialist Gorund?" He moved over the grip on his pump shotgun tightening.

"Well they wiped the primary live black box. But I am going to have to take it apart to find he dormant secondary black box to see if that was wiped as well. But as long as it was not obvious I do not think they managed to get to it. The ground in here would be torn up if it was." Gorund explained as he backed away. "As for getting this up and running. We just need someone in the engineering room to enter the right command code. The main power controls are back there."

Jace nodded as he thought about it for a moment. "Hold off on grabbing the secondary black box until I tell you." He then tapped the comm unit in his ear. "Captain Maxim, are you at the engineering deck yet?"

—--------------------

"We are arriving now." Captain Maxim answered as the door slid open. He walked in with his weapon raised and his flashlight on. They were in the bowels of the ship and quickly discovered that all of the lights in their area had been destroyed. They had found plenty of bodies as well, but he was more worried about the destroyed lights.

He looked around the large open area with his flashlight and stopped when the light went over several corpses. "We have at least a dozen dead down here. All with the same uniform. Looks like they were ship engineers. It looks like they were all tortured or killed for information. Probably access command codes for the ship." Maxim explained as he stepped forward and got a closer look at the injuries and cause of death.

He looked around for a moment and looked at his team members. "Get the names of the dead here. They will likely get a place of honor for withstanding the enemy in the face of torture and death." Maxim declared.

"Captain!" One of his men called out and he looked over with his flashlight to see him by a console near the reactor. "We just need to brute force an access code and it should jumpstart the ship."

Maxim nodded in understanding. "We just need an access code or to hack the ship systems and make an access code to proceed. In addition, I received the coded message via Captain Solisa." He explained as he looked around the room and switched his helmet’s view and sucked in a breath. He knew they would be there, but they were still strange to see.

Now he just had to wait for the order from Major Jace.

—------------------

"Good," Jace nodded and walked over to look at some scratches that were in the wall. They did not break to the wiring behind it but it still left a mark. "Sergeant K. How is your team doing?"

—------------------

Sergeant K rolled her eyes as they cleared another room. They had not even found any bodies up here. Let alone anything of importance. Although that in itself was important. Then there was the fact that every room seemed to have been ransacked.

"I received the code as well and acknowledge what it means." She answered as she walked to another room and opened the door. "But we have found next to nothing so far. I have a feeling we will not find anything either. Seems they thought of the same thing as you and ransacked the ranking officer quarters."

"How many dead?" Jace asked.

"None so far and we are halfway done." K responded with a frustrated click of her tongue.

"Hm, keep at it." Jace responded.

—-------------------

Jace thought for a moment and realized that these demons were likely trained in military tactics. Or one of those special groups seemed to have ordered the strike on this ship at least. "Captain Ulin-"

"We just arrived on site. We had to redirect because the hull breach cut off our main path." Ulin interrupted him. "Give us a few minutes to get the lay of the land before I give my report."

Jace tilted his head before nodding. "Very well, how about you Captain Tyler?"

—------------------

Captain Tyler moved along the hull of the Fuji-8. He pointed out a few different pieces of debris and rock that were stuck to areas of the ship. They were highlighted on his and the other mech screens.

"I think I found out how they got aboard. Or the potential way. There are a number of pieces of debris and rock stuck to the hull. But my mech is getting readings indicating that they are all composed of the same materials." Captain Tyler explained.

"Boarding vessels disguised as debris and rocks. Clever. Captain Solisa?" Jace responded over the command channel.

"Acknowledged. I am adjusting scans to pick up the composite that Captain Tyler pointed out." Captain Solisa responded and then the screens on Tyler’s mech lit up as a bunch of the debris and rocks were highlighted. "Captain Tyler, I have highlighted the additional boarding vessels hidden in the area. Fire on them when Major Jace gives the order. Major I have confirmed that the enemy are unable to breach our communications."

"Good, keep your head on a swivel Captain Tyler. The coded message may or may not apply to you." Jace informed him.

"Understood sir." Captain Tyler responded as he selected a bunch of the boarding vessels as targets for his laser cannon. When Jace gave the order he would give these demons a rude wake-up call.

—--------------------

Captain Ulin moved through the lower crew quarters. She was cautiously moving through the bunks. But stopped when one of her people raised their hand. She looked at them and saw them wait for a moment before motioning at an area.

He was in front because he had enhanced senses and was specialized in tracking. If anyone could find a living person from their team it was them. Ulin nodded her head and passed him. Going toward the door he pointed out.

She slowly opened it and looked inside as the door slowly opened. It was a small janitorial room with cleaning supplies. But all of the items were secured to shelves and walls in case the ship entered orbit and gravity pulled around the items. Aside from the supplies it was empty there were not even any signs of a person having been there.

Ulin looked at the tracker. He was pointing his weapon upward and Ulin followed the lie he made to the roof of the janitorial room. On the roof was a small panel that could be opened up. Probably a maintenance access to the ventilation system.

Ulin took a moment before speaking the Oda human dialect. "Come on down. We are friendlies." She announced. "If I have to come up there, I will not be kind about it."

After a few more seconds the panel opened up and a skinny and small man climbed down with his hand shakily holding a laser pistol toward them. "What- who are you?"

"Cerberus. Now come on," Ulin told him and then pressed her communication device. "One survivor found."

"Understood, finish your search. Captain Solisa, due an in-depth scan of the ship. There is no point in pretending we are not here if they are watching us." Jace ordered over the communication channel.

"We have to leave. Please. Those things are everywhere. They left a few aboard to hunt for sport. Please..." The young man pleaded as they moved through the lower crew quarters looking for more survivors.

—------------------------ 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Jace walked over and stood a few feet behind Captain Uti. "What do you have on the systems?"

"The codes were locked out because of an engineer. Looks like not all of them died proudly." Uti explained with a sigh. "We are going to have to go the difficult route and hack it. Permission?"

"Granted." Jace answered as he cracked his neck.

"Major Jace, aside from your boarding party and the single surviving human, there are no other humans aboard the Fuji-8. Confirm if the message was received." Captain Solisa declared over the communication channel.

Jace sighed and shook his head, "acknowledged. Captain Ulin, get your team back to The Wolfsbane. We will-" He stopped as he noticed something and clicked his tongue. "All stations fire at will." He then raised his shotgun and pointed it at Captain Uti’s back.

Captain Uti looked back at him and raised his hands in shock. "Wait-"

BANG!