Space Odyssey: Spectre

Jace walked up the stairs and into the large open area that used to be raised garden and dining area. He could tell from the various bushes and flowers that were about. But the tables and anything not nailed to the ground had been moved to the edge. He could not see Nila but the tracking program in his HUD had her moving around in this open platform.

"Nila you are a little too efficient. We encountered no resistance while coming here. Rook, how is the evacuation going?" Jace asked as he walked forward and sent up the digital flare so the Guardian-01 would know to come pick them up.

"Head Maid Rook," The head maid growled out like a reaction. She then sighed, "the reason for us not seeing anyone is because even the prince's people are taking the order to evacuate to heart. But the building is mostly empty and the neighboring areas have all begun evacuations towards the residential areas where it should be safer."

"Good." Jace nodded his head as he moved to the center of the platform. "Now we just have to wait and-"

"Look!" The prince called out while pointing to the sky from his spot on Jace's back.

Jace followed the direction and could see the explosions in high orbit. He then spun in a circle and could see it happening in several different directions. It seems that something had kicked off the war. But it had only been ten minutes since they talked to the Guardian-01. "That… is not good."

"Who is it?" Head Maid Rook asked.

But before Jace had a chance to answer he spotted the Guardian-01 flying towards them. "There is our ride…" He trailed off as slowly rising from below the edge of the platform was a gunship. "Well shit."

"Traitors! Surrender the prince to us for execution and we will let you escape!" The pilot yelled through the loud speaker system. Jace looked over the ship and recognized the design. He then began running through the faults in the ship.

After a few seconds of thinking he responded. "On my right side, aimed diagonally toward the left rear wing while standing just inside of the gun. Aim for the point where the plates meet." Jace ordered, seemingly spouting off a bunch of nonsense.

"What?" Head Maid Rook looked at him in confusion.

Fortunately the prince seemed to pick it up far more quickly. "Oh… did you memorize it?" Prince Trajan asked Jace.

"Yeah, it became a habit because of my ability." Jace answered as a single gunshot went off. He could see the bullet fly through the small cabin of the gunship and hit something in the roof. It was followed by a fiery explosion that engulfed the gunship before it swayed and then began falling out of the sky.

Jace could feel the building shake a moment later as the gunship presumably veered into and crashed into one of the many towers of the building. He ignored it for the moment as the Guardian-01 had drawn closer.

But then they could feel several more explosions throughout the building. Jace looked over at Head Maid Rook who looked just as confused. "Please tell me it is a chain reaction and not something different."

"Well I am about to kill your mood!" Nila called out from across the platform. "Parts of the other towers which were untouched are exploding. I can also see rockets being launched from the camp in front of the prince's palace."

Jace shook his head. They have no idea what is going on and they are likely checking every person that leaves the towers. But since they destroyed the gunship they had likely gained the soldiers' wrath who were only standing by before. Now that they made themselves a threat, the soldiers were trying to kill them.

"What should we do?" Trajan asked in a panic as he shifted on Jace's back.

"Nothing," Jace answered as he walked forward. The Guardian-01 was closing in on their positions and Asana was already showing off her skills with craft as it spun and flew backwards towards them with the rear ramp opening up. "We are just going to have to leave a bit more quickly."

As the ship arrived he kicked off the ground and landed on the rear ramp. He could feel another invisible body land next to him on the ramp. He walked forward as the ship continued to move back.

He crouched down near the pilot's seat. "Prince Trajan, please climb off my back." Jace requested as he released the prince's legs from his hold. While the prince climbed off his back he turned his attention to Asana, "what is going on? Who is fighting who?"

"It is a mix of the Crystoph Federation, Tyranus Society, and military loyalists as we are calling them. Several of the Vexical ships seemed to have rebellions break out on them. We cannot tell if it is some spies or just soldiers realizing something was wrong." Asana explained, "we are unfortunately not able to properly figure out what is going on. We are just listening to messages sent between ships for now."

"That is fine. We will need to get to a place out of the way until the warships arrive." Jace ordered. "How has it been on the ground?" Jace asked as he moved away from the prince.

"Good, but we have been getting more air traffic. That gunship was probably one of the first ones up. There will be more. Unfortunately it looks like the guns will not be as effective. Something about the instability of the energy device?" Asana informed him.

"Haa… Masilla, she went overboard with the overhaul and likely screwed with something she should not have. I will take a look at it, but if the guns are damaged on the outside there is nothing I can do about it for now." Jace looked at the ramp as the last of the maids climbed aboard the Guardian-01. "We are all aboard the ship. Get us away from the tower."

"Yes sir."