Space Odyssey: Spectre

They walked down for only a few minutes before she started hearing voices. Not the type you could hear out loud. But the mental kind that meant she was hearing minds.

{Here comes someone? Time to see if we get a signal of some kind from the pack leader? The protocol is to have them go first in the event that we are captured and forced to expose this location.} She could hear one of them thinking, while the other was thinking about what they would be eating for dinner tonight.

"So Shepard, when did we move locations?" Marcus asked from behind, clearly intent on breaking the silence. He seemed to think it was silent because of some awkwardness that honestly did not exist.

But Shepard being the kind person he was obliged Marcus, "kid you have been out of country for awhile. We have moved at least six times since you left. The latest occurred in the last few months. We are constantly trying to stay out of sight, and staying mobile is part of that objective."

"Why did you move this time?" Marcus asked with a scoff.

"Honestly? Our last base got attacked by the Victorium. I doubt there was not a faction who was hit by them during their raids of the human territory." Shepard explained, "I am sure you experienced it over in the Imperium as well."

"Actually we did not. A few of the border territories were hit but that was it." Marcus explained as they walked past the hidden guards who seemed to decide that they were fine. Salem relaxed her hand so she was no longer gripping her pistol.

"Well that is annoying." Shepard grumbled.

"If it makes you feel better, they never located the Echo System either." Salem pointed out with a grin as they were arriving at a metal door that was at the end of this staircase. She could see a camera in the corner above the door.

"That does not make me feel any better Salem. It actually makes me feel worse. But then again, I can not fault the Victorium when we have yet to locate that system either." Shepard grumbled. He moved to the door and slammed his fist against it twice. Just hard enough to make sure it was heard, but not enough to damage his own hand.

Salem shrugged, "speaking of hiding places, what were with those guys back there? Are you really that paranoid that your enemies are going to walk right through your front door?" Marcus looked at her in confusion but Shepard just shrugged.

The metal door then creaked as it opened. Light shined through and Marcus and Shepard turned off their flashlights. Standing on the other side of the door on either side are a pair of people in body armor and with weapons. They watched as they entered the large underground room.

"Welcome to the Sand Bunker!" A voice called out. She looked over to see a man with similar facial features when compared to Marcus walking over with a limp. This was likely Henry Trentwood, she had heard about him but that was about it.

"General, there was no need to welcome us personally." Shepard pointed out as he and the Union General clasped arms in a welcoming greeting. "Or is there an emergency reason that you might need to speak with us?"

"Yes and no." General Trentwood then looked at her. "I actually need the intel she collected. The only report we got was about the existence of the Spectres and the report on the massive number of soldiers that the Emperor has in reserve."

Salem frowned and looked at Shepard, "I sent you four pockets of intel since I left the Echo System."

"I only managed to decode and send out the first one. Despite what you may think, encrypting the intel so well makes it difficult for others to access it." Shepard growled in annoyance, "but yeah they only got the first pocket of intel, "I did not have time to send anymore."

Salem sighed and shook her head. "What is going on? What do you need to know?"

General Trentwood nodded across the open space to a hall. "I will explain in the meeting room. The others are waiting." He then turned and nodded at his son, "welcome back Marcus. How was your mission in the Imperium?"

Marcus grunted, she could feel his anger in his thoughts. But even if she could not, she would have felt it in his words. "It was fine. Despite it just being a pretext to get me out of the way. The Imperium is not as stable as people might think, but I can share the details when I write a report later. But you were right about this Lord Hoodwink you asked about. He was a well known prince, but they basically erased him from existence. There are no mentions of him anywhere in the Imperium. Only that he existed, was chased out of the Imperium for experimentation on people."

"Hmm…" General Trentwood seemed thoughtful at that while they walked. As they walked they were being watched and checked out by several others who were standing around and waiting. "Miss Wintry, the last I heard of Lord Hoodwink was that he had a unit led by a Spectre Jace after him. What is your assessment of the situation there?"

"He is dead." Salem answered confidently, getting a confused look from Marcus while Shepard grunted.

"Oh?" General Trentwood glanced back at her. "Explain."

"Jace is like a dog with a bone. And I had the chance to personally interact with Lord Hoodwink a while back before I entered the Echo System. He is the type of person that Jace would kill regardless if he was given an order to capture him alive." Salem began explaining, thinking about what she figured had happened.

"Then why did he not kill him in Leonair before we arrived?" General Trentwood asked.

Salem raised an eyebrow, "a better question is how you came out of an interaction with him alive." Salem pointed out. "As for why, he was in a foreign country. It would make sense for him to hold back while he was investigating."

"So do you think the Spectres can be turned to our side?" General Trentwood asked.

"No." Salem shook her head. "Spectres will only follow orders from their superiors and they are all strictly loyal to the chain of command that has built up. Not out of a sense of fear or obligation, but because it is the best way for them to live and push the bounds of the nanosystem."

"Is it some type of brainwashing? Could we convince any of them with something on a personal level?" General Trentwood asked.

"No, it is not brainwashing. As for convincing them, I only know Jace on a personal level. The rest I have no idea about. But Jace is the kind of person that strives best in a hostile environment. There is a reason he was sent after a monster like Lord Hoodwink." Salem informed them.

"It is because he is a monster. An unpredictable monster. We would need to have some type of leverage over him to make him reliable." Shepard concluded from her words.