Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 429: Demon Outpost
Jace was in position. He was coming in from the opposite side where Corporal Quest and Sergeant K had set up. Captain Uti and Doctor Foulm had stayed in their original position. He waited until Corporal Quest sent his signal or he saw him fire.
It happened a moment later when he saw a flash of blue light followed by one of the demons at the top of the tower collapsing.
Vroom!
Jace came over the hill and zoomed down toward the outpost. The gate he was heading toward was manned by a sleeping demon. So he focused more on the demons in the tower. There were two more that were up there.
But he watched as a second one took a bolt to the head and collapsed, which was followed by the third one dropping to the ground and began screaming in their language. A few moments later he could see several red bolts racing towards the area where Corporal Quest and Sergeant K had set up their position.
The demon screaming also unfortunately had the added effect of waking up the demon that was sleeping on guard duty. But Jace materialized the knife and threw it at the demon as it stood up. The sleeping guard demon did not get a chance to even speak before he was loosely hanging from the wall as the knife had sunk into its neck and stuck the demon to the wall.
Jace rode right past the hanging corpse and into the outpost.
Inside of the outpost were a number of large cages where a number of people were gathered. There were also a few individual cages as well. Some with actual animals as well. But he ignored those and looked at the demons. The base of the demon’s tower had four of them coming out. While up on the wall were five demons that were shooting outward.
Jace set the dirtbike by the wall and moved toward the base of the tower. He activated his electrical sight for a moment and looked around. There were three more demons up in the tower but there were not any others that he missed. But he noticed that there was something strange about the structure itself, like there was a pulse running through the entire thing. He set that thought aside for the moment.
He moved toward the four that were going to the other doorway that one of them closed. He rematerialized the knife in his hand as he moved up behind the closest demon. The knife sliced right through their neck. But as they died they made a choking noise that caught the attention of the other three demons.
"&$#%@&*!" One of them screamed in a panic as Jace moved forward. The closest one to him that he was going for next dropped their larger weapon and instead grabbed a jagged blade from its torso and slashed upwards.
Jace swayed slightly and the tip of the blade passed right in front of his eye and hit off his hat. While Jace’s own blade found its way to the demon’s chest. Going upwards at a diagonal angle into where a human heart would be. Most of his people would have to guess since demon physiology changed from demon to demon, but he was cheating by using his electrical vision to read the outline of the nervous system.
"Gaargghh!" It barked out as Jace grabbed its knife from its hand using a disarming technique. Then he yanked his own knife to the side and his blade cut clean through the creature as blood was splattered on its allies.
The last two jumped back to get some distance as they aimed at him. But Jace threw both knives right before they fired. Both knives found their way into the barrels of the demon’s guns. The result was a small explosion that destroyed the weapons.
Jace was on them a moment later and was grabbing one by the horns. The other one dropped its weapon and pulled its own jagged blade. Stabbing towards Jace while his back was turned to them. But Jace jumped up while still holding onto one of the demon’s horns, doing a handstand.
Jace then spun his body with enough force to cause a slight breeze.
Crack!
The demon whose horns Jace was holding snapped as the head spun around and pointed in the wrong direction. Jace was tossing himself off the demon’s corpse as he rematerialized the knife in his hand. He threw it as the last demon stood stunned and caught it in the throat.
"Krachh!" It sputtered as it fell to its knees and grabbed at the knife that was protruding from its throat. Jace landed on the ground and walked forward. He planted his boot on the demon’s chest and the demon then started to claw at his pant leg. He then yanked the knife upward and the knife cut clean through the demon’s skull but still caused a chunk of its brain and skull to fly toward the cages.
Jace then turned to the five demons that were up on the wall. Four of them were lightly armored but one of them was more heavily armored. The single heavily armored demon and two of the light armored demons looked toward him.
It cost them one of their fellow defenders as a sniper shot from Corporal Quest hit one of them in the head. They reeled back and fell off the wall and landed a few feet away from Jace. In a panic the heavily armored one quickly gave orders as they took cover. While at the same time the other wall defenders all pointed their weapons at Jace and began firing.
Jace turned and ran toward the tower. As the bolts of heated lasers nipped at his heels and barely missed him he dove and rolled into the base of the tower. The moment he did he looked up and saw a stairway around the edge of the tower leading up. But up towards the top he saw a demon peak over the side before aiming their weapon over the edge.
Jace launched himself forward and took cover under the part of the staircase that the demon was shooting from. He watched with his electrical vision as the demon quickly moved to reorient. So Jace grabbed the underside of the staircase and swung himself up, flipping up onto the staircase.
After he did the demon began firing at him as he had an angle on Jace’s position. But Jace moved upward and forced the demon to reorient again as he ran under the demon. As Jace went to move to a new position a second set of laser bolts joined the first.
Jace was forced to move back a bit before jumping forward and propelling himself up onto the next level of the stairs. As he landed he felt a scorching heat pass right by his shoulder, just barely missing him. In response he materialized and threw his knife.
But he was off and the demon moved out of the way as the knife hit the wall. But it had the intended effect of moving the demon for a moment. Allowing Jace to get up onto the next stair level and within range of the two demons.
The closest one swerved his gun and fired several bolts with a lot more speed at him. Using their guns rapid fire function to its fullest since he was getting closer. Jace had gotten a look at one after Fuji-8. They were interesting weapons but not that interesting nor that powerful. They were just more heavily focused on heat and scorching damage. In a way they were similar to plasma but weaker.
Jace had to swerve slightly and do a low to the ground dash as he raced forward to slice the demon off at the feet. As he made contact something happened. The entire tower structure twisted and pulled apart.
As it did it reformed into a massive platform that he and three demons from the tower were now on. But before he could act a dark purple swirling portal appeared in the center of the newly formed platform. Jace looked between the demons and the portal. But he was surprised to see the demos were running to the edge of the platform and jumping off. He saw one of their heads snap back as Corporal Quest connected a bullet.
"So you are that troublesome human that Envy fought." The voice was both beautiful and haunting at the same time. He looked to the purple portal to see a figure step out. He would have mistaken her for a human if it was not for the horns on the top of her head that curved backwards. She wore not just a purple mask but purple armor or a shell that was covering the rest of her body as well. Only leaving the soft material for the joints. Her hair was black and almost looked like they emitted a black glow.
Jace frowned as he felt a pressure push down on his body. Actually it was not pressure, it was gravity. This demon woman was exuding a pressure that was trying to push him downward. But he noticed that not even the ground was caving. "Envy?" Jace asked as he realized if they were speaking the Oda dialect he could probably communicate. "Was that the green masked one?"
