Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 426: Wolfsbane Waiting

Ulin walked through the Wolfsbane. She was feeling... annoyed. She would have preferred having gone down in the crashing ship with Jace. She was sure he was having way more fun with killing demons. But she drew the short straw and found a survivor, forcing her to come back to the Wolfsbane.

She walked onto the bridge and saluted immediately as her ears were assaulted by the screaming coming from the holographic communication system.

"-WILL BE HEARING FROM YOUR SUPERIORS! PERHAPS THEY CAN EXPLAIN THIS LACK OF PROPER PROTOCAL!" There were six holographic projections in the room. One of them was Captain Solisa who was floating in the air and looking as bored as can be. The other five were people from other ships. Two of them were politicians from the Oda Empire. One of them was a high ranking Admiral from the Oda Empire. Another was a high ranking Admiral from the Victorium. The last and loudest was the politician from the Victorium who was likely sent here for the negotiations.

"By all means, try." Solisa shrugged and gave a robotic chuckle. "The only person I report to is down on that planet. So until he is confirmed deceased or gets in contact, I will continue to follow the protocols that were set in place." The Victorium politician looked like he was about to snap.

Ulin cleared her throat to catch Solisa’s attention. It seems the others who were part of the call realized that they were not getting anywhere. The Admiral from the Oda Empire spoke up before the Victorium Politician could burst in anger. "Perhaps we should reconvene later. When the unit leader of Cerberus is able to reach us."

"Agreed." "Agreed." "Agreed." The other three agreed quickly but the Victorium Politician’s hologram just disappeared. Then the other holograms disappeared. Except for the Victorium Admiral’s hologram.

Once the others were gone he spoke. "I apologize for the head negotiator’s manners, he is..."

"Part of the anti-Artificial Intelligence faction?" Solisa answered for him with a scoff. "I am well aware. Major Jace found it immensely amusing when our intelligence reported as much. It was also the reason for our plan having him aboard the Wolfsbane during our prepared landing operation."

The Victorium Admiral was stunned for a moment before he burst into laughter. "I was told that Cerberus was a unique part of the military. But I did not think that you would have intelligence briefings about your own people."

"Courtesy of MILD, of course." Solsia gave a slight bow.

"MILD, the Military Intelligence and Logistics Division, brought over from the Vexical Military since your methods rival the racial benefits of the Orius. I have not been completely briefed on the changes since I have not returned to Victorium secured space in awhile. But despite its name it squarely removes the intelligence division out of the military." The Victorium Admiral sighed. "I do hope I can get an intelligence download before the next escort mission."

"I am sure they will give you a reprieve Admiral. Now if you excuse me, I have to talk with Captain Ulin." Solisa gave a slight bow with her holographic otter form as the Victorium Admiral disappeared. Solsia then looked at Ulin who was still standing at attention. "You can relax, Captain Ulin. What have you learned from the survivor?"

Ulin relaxed and nodded. "Not much with doing alternate forms of interrogation aside from just talking and slight intimidation." Ulin explained. "I did input the videos and my own notes. He said the ’Oni’ appeared and started grabbing people. It started slowly with people just disappearing but then they swarmed the ship."

"Looks like Major Jace was right about them kidnapping people. It also explains-" Solisa was cut off as a red swirling portal appeared on the bridge. The same as the type that Ulin had seen on the Fuji-8. Solisa waved her hands and a ripple went through the ship and the portal got splotchy before disappearing. "It explains why they are attempting to use a portal to infiltrate our ship. Do you think they are struggling to get off the planet?"

Ulin nodded her head. "Yes I do. Humans may have scattered records and a reputation. But there are a number of records of other races that prefer stealing and scavenging technology as opposed to making their own. These demons might be such a race. Do the Xenar have a record of them doing something similar in the past?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"We do not know." Solisa shook her hologram otter head. "There is only so much that we were able to retrieve from either invasion. Whenever they managed to invade a planet there was always a brief period of time before we were fine. But I will say that the other race prioritized the demons over the Xenar. Almost like they were natural enemies."

"So we are in new territory." Ulin nodded her head. "The landing party is on standby but without getting any word from Jace..."

"I will have them relax for now." Solisa waved her hand and Ulin could already tell a swarm of messages had been sent out. She then waved her hand again and a video surveillance screen appeared. Showing what Solisa was seeing somewhere on the ship. "It appears we now know who the traitor is from the Fuji-8."

Ulin watched as the survivor they picked up started pulling a wall panel off the wall. He was attempting to rewire that part of the ship. "What is he attempting to do?" By traitor, Solisa should mean the person who helped the demons access Fuji-8’s systems.

"Short circuit that portion of the Wolfsbane. I have already sent security to escort him down to the brig and engineers to repair the damage that he has already caused." Solisa explained. "I will let Major Jace know when he gets in contact."

"What should we do while we wait? I am sure the other captains are getting just as anxious as I am. The first mission for our unit and it has already gone awry and we are not even at the difficult part yet." Ulin pointed out as she watched the door to the room the Fuji-8 survivor opened up and a team of soldiers moved and grabbed the smaller man who immediately began screaming and panicking as he was dragged out the room. A moment later some engineers walked in while looking back and then they set down their gear and began repairing the damaged wall.

Solisa waved her hand again and several more areas of the Wolfsbane appeared. In the hangars there were engineers setting up equipment or working. While the soldiers relaxed with their gear and weapons ready. Then there were lounge areas of the ship where other soldiers were relaxing and hanging out. There were also the barracks where some of them were sleeping.

"There is nothing to worry about. In a few minutes the first ship crew will cycle out. As for the landing party, if nothing happens in the next hour I will cycle them out. I already have a general idea for what Major Jace’s plan was." Solisa explained as her hologram form moved and sat on a hologram captain’s chair while a hat appeared on her head.

Ulin heard the door sliding open and glanced back while several people walked in and saluted. "I suppose that will work for now."

"Back to your stations, bridge crew. My discussion with the Admirals and politicians is over." Solisa informed them as they saluted at attention. They relaxed and moved to their various stations. "Captain Ulin, if that is all we will-"

"Captain Solisa!" One of the returning officers interrupted Solisa. Both Solisa and Ulin looked over at her. "I apologize for interrupting. But there is a faint signal coming from Sakana Nine."

"Is it the demons? They did attempt to hack into the ship systems earlier when we were boarding the Fuji-8." Solisa pointed out.

"No, it appeared less than a minute ago and is not an exchange of information. It is just noise. Or at least it appears to just be noise." The officer began explaining as Solisa pulled up what they were seeing and turned it into a hologram they could all see. It was a number of lines with several of them being flat but something was constantly changing, going up and down.

Solisa watched them and motioned for the officer to explain.

The officer flinched and nodded, holding up her hands and getting familiar with the controls of the hologram for a moment before she began removing several of the lines. "Most of these are types of communication we monitor just in case. A lot of them are channels, frequencies or other things we would typically use. Even the emergency channels. But this one-" She pointed at a line that was going up and down in what seemed to be a pattern. "This is an old long range ’radio’ frequency channel. I believe the Major is using it to broadcast a set of numbers in morse code. But I do not know what to do with the numbers."

"A very old and human technique. That fits Major Jace’s MO." Solisa waved her hand and the numbers appeared. She looked at it for a moment before chuckling, "oh how clever. I will need a few minutes and I need the engineers to build something." She brought up a large amount of numbers and looked through them quickly. "Major Jace has a way to establish communication with us."