Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 462: Wrong Time

Jace was dressed up in simple body armor with the partially destroyed Cerberus hat on his head as he stood in the center of the two lines of his unit. The majority of them were injured or on punishment duty. The rest were part of the unit he was leaving the station with later. They were standing at attention and unflinching as the massive transport ship slowly landed on the ground.

Behind his people and covering the sides of the streets like a parade line were people silently waiting to welcome the refugees from Sakana Nine. The majority of which were civilians and local people.

As the door started to cool the door started to creak as it opened and lowered. Creating a few ramps and stairs that were just a bit shorter than the two lines were wide that Jace had set up. They were standing in formation to welcome the refugees.

After the space transport’s door was fully open the first of the refugees came walking down. He could also see some small carts rolling down the ramps. They were full of bags and boxes. They moved right past Jace and toward some buses that were set aside for the refugees. It would take them to their temporary housing.

The refugees began gathering at the bottom of the transport’s stairs while Jace looked over them. Then he nodded his head. "Welcome to the Princess’ Pride! The Victorium’s human based Colony station!"

They stared at Jace for a moment until a little human girl walked forward. Jace crouched so he was the same height as her as she approached. He recognized the little girl. She was the same one from that outpost they liberated on Sakana Nine.

"You are that really strong guy! Thank you for saving all of us from the demons!" The girl was smiling brightly as she spoke.

Jace smiled back and pulled off his hat and put it on her head. Twisting it a moment, ruffling her hair and causing her to giggle. "That is our job. Cerberus will save and liberate people for as long as it exists. Now don’t you have family, you have to help get to the buses?"

The little girl giggled again before running back and pulling her mother along toward the buses. With the badly damaged hat bouncing on her head. After they started moving past Jace the rest of the crowd began moving forward.

A few walked up and spoke to him. A few of the odd races like the Orcs that came right out of mythology and stories, walked up and asked about joining the military or Cerberus. He directed them to a specific bus with blue camouflage design covering it, that was set aside for any refugees that wanted to join the military.

Chances were that they would be assigned to a local militia for a time. Eventually gaining permission to join the Victorium Military once they were confirmed to not be spies. It was the operating procedures that they had come up with in such short notice.

Jace was actually only there for a few hours shaking hands and greeting people. Once the transport was empty and all the buses had left was when they went back to the base. Most of them were going back to their barracks or the sectioned housing for those with family units.

Jace was the first to arrive at the smaller new hangar. The Nero Hawk was a sleek black design. As he looked over the arrow head shape design he noticed the landing pads were just three protruding pieces that barely left the ship and dug into the ground. The external metal of the Nero Hawk was made of a combination of Chemi-metal and a few other materials he did not recognize. But whatever it was blocked his electrical vision from seeing inside of the ship.

As he walked around the ship he saw someone familiar admiring the ship. He smirked and chuckled as he walked over. Holding his hand up to stop the pair of guards that were standing a fair distance back. "Hielo, long time no see. Is this your creation?" Jace asked as he moved up next to her.

Taylor Hielo. His long time rival and friend. She is the daughter of the former Hellion Industries which had since turned into Hellfax Company. It has expanded and absorbed several other companies and has been continually developing advanced technology. Through its partnership with Director Fenrir, the company managed to survive Vexical’s planned collapse and its conversion into a company under the Victorium. He had not talked or communicated with her since she and the rest of the Tartarus group joined The Elysium under Spectre Dakota’s command.

"Jace... hey..." She looked at him for a moment before looking aback at the ship. She looked a bit more tame than the last time he saw her. "Sorry, I am... processing." She informed him slowly as she looked around almost like she was in her own world a moment ago. "It is nice to see you as well, Jace. Are you still here? I thought you left? No wait... that has not happened. Nevermind."

Jace grabbed her chin and forced her to look him in the eyes. When he did he noticed one of her eyes was constantly shifting colors. "Did something happen during one of your combat missions? I know there are a few odd things out there. But I doubt the Crystoph Federation nor the Montez Kingdom has any advanced tech that can mess with the mind."

"Huh... no... that is not what happened. Are we at... ah! I know where we are. We are when Dahlia Dakota learns her truth. Madam Fenrir owns up to her mistakes." Hielo explained, causing Jace to frown. "What else happens here? I was supposed to be here for a reason... I think..." Her eye slowly turned back to the normal color matching her other eye. Then she blinked and then blushed. "Umm... Jace, can you let go of my chin? I may not be interested in men but you are still very attractive."

Jace let go of her chin and backed up slightly. "What just happened? Why was one of your eyes constantly shifting colors?"

"Oh... it happened again?" Hielo frowned and flinched. "Sorry you had to see that. How crazy did I act? Ever since I tested out that- actually nevermind. I do not think I can tell you about that just yet. But it happened during an experiment that accidently produced the once theoretical tachyon particle."

Tachyon particles were something that was supposed to be heavily steeped in science fiction. "How do you know you were detecting Tachyon particles?" Since it was theoretical or in some cases straight up fictional, there was no known way to detect these particles.

"Because we were seeing shadows or silhouettes of what we would do a few seconds before we did it. As well as a few of what we were doing previously. It was... disorienting. We quickly built something that could detect the particles in the air and then the entire project was shuttered." Hielo explained with a sigh. "Most of the others involved have either gone comatose or been admitted to ’special care’. It has me worried about my own fate. Especially since I have those episodes of..."

"Temporal displacement." Jace told her when she trailed off.

Hielo looked at him in confusion. "What?"

Jace shrugged. "You are existing in multiple points of your timeline at the same time. It is like having several of your own personalities shoved into your mind when they have a variation of experiences since some things will change because of your own mind." Jace began explaining as he noticed the rest of his team had entered the hangar and were making their way over.

"How do you know so much about tachyon and... temporal displacement?" Hielo asked in confusion.

Jace went to answer and then his mind just blanked and he tilted it in confusion. "I have no idea. I have never been interested in the subject. But you probably want to find a way to... solidify your place in the timeline." Jace blinked in confusion after the words came out of his mouth. Then he closed his eyes and focused on himself as he felt something was wrong. The moment he did he knew where this information was coming from.

Hielo raised an eyebrow when he opened his eyes. "You okay?"

Jace nodded, "yeah it-"

"Major- I mean Colonel, we are reporting for duty." Jace turned around to see Ulin saluting along with the other members of the Special Operations team.

"Go get on the Nero Hawk. We depart in half an hour." Jace ordered as he pulled his notebook out of a pocket of the outfit he was wearing which was just a black combat jacket and black cargo pants. He quickly began righting something down as he turned to Hielo. "You either want to find a way to evolve to a Spectre or... go and research the odd material that is located here."

"What is here?" Hielo accepted the note.

"Classified." Jace shrugged. "Ask Fenrir."

"Okay..." Hielo sighed and then remembered something and handed him an altered datapad. "This is for the ship. Only you are cleared to fly it. All the details about it are in that datapad." Once he accepted it, she nodded and started walking away. "I am going to take a look around your garage while I am here. Just to see if you managed to make anything interesting. Next time we should really try another competition."