Chapter 400: Objective After Vacation
"What are you pulling up?" Jace asked as he nodded at the holographic interface.
The High Priestess put a bunch of the information in a folder. "First I am finishing what I was doing before you arrived. Then I am going to discuss the preliminary information of the first operations you will likely be doing in a few months time."
Jace raised an eyebrow and watched as she moved through the information until she stopped and then brought up a few folders. Jace watched this and noticed that all of the folders had coded names and each had a red dot next to them. While off to the side the information she set aside, some of them had green or yellow dots. Red likely indicated an unfinished operation. Green indicated completed. While Yellow might indicate one underway.
"Okay..." The High Priestess nodded her head and made a clicking noise with her throat before pulling up the first file. "The reason I am showing you this is because Director Fenrir recognizes that you have various contacts in the underworld and can likely obtain a different set of information if you put your mind to it."
Jace tilted his head and then nodded, "She is not wrong. I have made sure to build up a bit of a reputation in the underworld." He agreed because even now he had reached out to connect and make connections. He had not done any more ’jobs’ but he had been using his connections to obtain some rare metals so he could make plenty of Chemi-metal.
"Good then I will tell you about the first thing which you will be going to." The High Priestess pulled up a hologram and a planet and its surroundings appeared. Around the planet was a moon and then there was the additional debris and destroyed ships hanging in orbit. The hologram was clearly a partial scan of the planet. There was something off about the hologram, aside from the fact that it was done at a distance and there was a clear lack of information.
Jace seemed lost in thought for a moment as the High Priestess organized the information. He then realized what was bothering him. "This planet is missing a moon." The gravitational pattern and spacing of debris was off. He innately calculated and realized something was off, so when he took a closer look he realized a massive celestial body was missing.
"You are correct. Meet Sakana Nine, it is a planet on the outer edge of Sakana. The Sakana System is far to the edge of the Oda Empire. It is so young that it is considered a colony system. Sakana Nine being the youngest and newest colony." The High Priestess began explaining. Pausing to let Jace understand the background of the planet and the system it is inside of.
"Why would our first operation be in the Oda Empire? I doubt they want our assistance with something when they would usually want to handle it themselves." Jace pointed out, he had studied all of the Vexical Empire’s neighbors. The Oda Empire had Vexical’s respect and the Oda in turn had the Vexical’s respect. But the Oda Empire were isolationists all the way. He knew there were negotiations to bring them into the Victorium. But that was all ’hush hush’, so he was not in the know when it came to those things.
The High Priestess nodded, "I would normally agree. While we normally would not even be going to the table with slavers. Your former emperor insisted their form of slavery was more of a debt collection rather than slavery. So we started negotiations, but something happened on Sakana Nine and all contact was lost with the occupants while the station and a moon orbiting the planet were both destroyed. The projected death count was so high that not even we could ignore it." The High Priestess explained with a clear trace of sadness.
"That is the reason we are going in?" Jace asked with surprise. He doubted that would compel the Oda to ask for help.
"No." The High Priestess shook her head. "We stopped negotiations and observed the events since something like this has never happened to us either. Then we watched as ships from Oda’s fleet were destroyed when they got close to the planet. When that happened we insisted on sending in some ships as assistance."
"Was the result that bad?" Jace asked as he realized that would have been done immediately. They would not have waited a few months for a new and untested group to go in.
"Yes." The High Priestess nodded her head. "Fortunately our ships were able to send out information before they were destroyed. But all hands were projected to have been lost." The High Priestess answered as she brought up another bit of information. "The negotiators were so shocked they fainted. The Oda Empire realized what kind of situation they were in. So they agreed to hold off on sending anyone in and negotiations would continue to happen for the Oda to ally themselves with the Victorium rather than join them."
Jace analyzed her words and realized she was still holding something back. Then he smirked as he realized the discrepancy. "What information did your ships manage to send back?" Jace asked as he watched the High Priestess smirk. Or at least he thought it was a smirk.
She swiped her hand and a set of data and a clear intercepted message were pulled up. "They sent video and data of the attack on their ship. In addition they managed to intercept this message, or at least we think this is a message."
Jace smiled madly as he saw the message and understood immediately that Director Fenrir recommended to the High Priestess that this was shown to him.
"I can see Fenrir was correct." The High Priestess was clearly suppressing laughter. "Both her people and mine have been attempting to translate it but have been struggling. But Fenrir has a record of this type of writing appearing before. She said you were one of the first people to see this type of writing and might have a way to translate it."
Jace nodded as he looked at the circular writing that was clearly supposed to be red. "I wish I could get the original file. But if you send this to me, I can start working on a translation. But I must say, I am so excited."
"Why?" The High Priestess asked with a raised brow.
"Because, this is the writing of one of the races who wiped out the Xenar. Your ancestors and the predecessors of this galaxy." Jace answered with an abundance of excitement.
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[General Information
Name: Jace Steel
Chronological Age: 18
Compatibility Rating: S
Spouse: Salem Wintry
Bound: Shilla Aphri
Lineage: Electricity Warlock
Bound Items: Ritual Sword, Gladius, Longsword
Talent/Ability Understanding: 75%
Evolution Stage: 0% Human, 70% Spectre, 30% [Redacted]
{Sealed}: {Locked}
Physique: 10%
Mind: 23%
{Spirit}: 3%
Soul: 11%]
[Astral Beast Companion
Name: Cho
Age: 1
Imprinted on: Jace Steel, Salem Wintry, and Jordan]
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