Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 422: Cue the Explosions

Chapter 422: Cue the Explosions
Jace watched as the patrol of demons drew closer. There was not much to hide behind in this field but he had made it work. Which was why he was hiding behind the destroyed form of a mech. It looked like one of the early Oda mechs to fall on this battlefield.
As he had gotten closer he had started running into armored demons who were patrolling the edges of the battlefield. Unlike what he thought they became less difficult the farther he went towards the city and castle. It seems like they were placed here more to keep people inside and contained rather than to keep people out.
He had already alerted the rest of his people. The only ones he was worried about was the group Sergeant K was leading. They were the largest group and had the most injured people. He probably should have set up a rendezvous outside of the battlefield. But he was more worried about getting away from the Fuji-8
BOOM!
Almost as if on cue an explosion rocked the area as another section of the Fuji-8 exploded. Sending up a fiery ball of metal into the air. Jace looked over at it and saw that it was coming in his direction but not coming toward him.
"**&&^*&(*" He was starting to pick up the demon’s language but he definitely did not understand that. As he prepared to look out from cover the demon patrol suddenly ran right past him.
He exchanged a look of shock with one of the demons. But they suddenly stopped and spun around, turning toward him with their rifle raised. But Jace was already materializing his knife and jamming it up between its ribs.
The other two demons that were with it had heard the first demon’s grunt of pain. They were looking in their direction and Jace was picking up the first demon and throwing his body at them. One of them squealed in shock as they caught the body. The other was cut off before it could make any noise because of the knife Jace had pulled out of the first one and thrown. It stabbed right through the demon’s forehead.
Jace was grabbing the last one by the horns on its head and kneeing them in the face as they dropped their dead comrade and fumbled with their weapon. He could feel a cracking sensation as his knee connected. Instead of kneeing him again, Jace just twisted the horns counter clockwise.
Snap!
It was crisp as the demon’s neck snapped and his limbs went limp. After the last one was dead, Jace looked over the demon patrol. He did a quick search and found no communication equipment. So he just left them and kept moving closer to the castle.
After a few minutes the central most fighting was visible. He could see as unarmored demons and several larger demons were fighting against various sizes of Oda mechs and infantry. It seems like someone managed to organize the locals.
Hopefully they were clever enough to send out scouting missions to figure out what these demons are up to. He would have to either get through this battle or join it first though. Taking in consideration-
Vroom!
Jace frowned as he watched a vehicle fly right over a hill. It was an armored transport. They were not being discreet in the slightest. That would be Sergeant K’s team. They had ed finding several vehicles aboard the Fuji-8 as they made their way out. But nothing else was said about it.
He assumed they had not managed to get it out but he would be wrong. He realized how wrong when a moment later with a heavy mechanical noise a tank rolled over the hill and turned its barrel toward one of the larger demons.
Bang!
The heavy laser slammed into the large demon’s side. Causing it to roar and flinch. Looking over in the tanks direction. Giving the Knight class mech it was fighting a chance to behead it with an attack from a vibrating sword whose hum was causing Jace to frown.
Jace sighed as he walked out of cover. Sergeant K’s armored transport was churning up mud and body parts of demons as it made a line for the entrance to the city. From the roof several canisters were fired up into the air.
The action seemed to be understood by the Oda Empire’s soldiers as they began to back away. Doing a fighting retreat as they moved. The tank that his soldiers commandeered seemed to be moving as fast as possible as well.
As soon as the canisters started falling they started to release a thick gas or fog that was white. It spread quickly through the area and Jace, who was moving toward the back of the demon’s gathering where he could see the demon leading this attack, managed to pick up on the thick scent.
"Goddamnit." Jace cursed as he looked around for some sort of cover and found the chassis of a destroyed vehicle. He ran inside as one of the demons fired inside of the fog. A little early if he was guessing. But it still had the desired effect.
The canisters the armored transport had fired into the air were filled with a gas that got thick when in contact in the air. It also quickly spread as far as possible as fast as possible. It was something that was almost considered a war crime since it could cover an entire planet. But because of its highly flammable nature it was doubtful it could achieve this.
But on a battlefield like this it would be perfect for cutting a line through the enemy forces. Like in this situation. There was just one downside. He had been making his way to the back of the enemy line so he had to worry about getting caught in the middle.
BOOM!
A much heavier explosion rocked the nearby battlefield as the large demons screamed in pain and were staggered by the explosion that covered their legs and in some cases lower groin area. But from the smaller demons the screaming was ear shattering as they were cooked alive.
The vehicle chassis Jace hid behind rocked slightly when the explosion occurred. He was fortunate that he was at the edge of the gas wave. But that would still have been annoying if he was caught in the middle of it.
He came out of cover a moment later to find the majority of the battlefield where the fog had spread was covered in fire. It would seem that the oil or other flammable sources had covered the battlefield during previous fights. Now they were set aflame and created a unique burning landscape.
Jace ignored the demons he could see screaming in pain as he looked toward where the demon commanders he was sneaking up on were located. There were only three of them who seemed completely unbothered by the situation.
All three were armored. There was one with a taller and bulkier form who had yellow skin with strange tattoos covering his body. The other two were a pair of red skinned demons with a single horn coming out of their foreheads. Their bodies were unharmed by the explosion or the flames that were licking at their legs.
Instead they surveyed the battlefield where their subordinates were dying with a look of disdain before the yellow skinned one reached down to a large mass of flesh of metal and waved his hand. A yellow holographic screen appeared and the demon began speaking.
He was managing to translate this time. But it was broken because he did not have a complete translation of their language. He was wishing he had a translation program on hand. Or at least remembered one. But he was hoping to only board the enemy ship, he never planned to set foot on this planet.
"The humans *(^&*&** an entire %&%&* of mine. I request a $^$^*& to exterminate this *(&^&&&( of humans. Wasting more resources on these humans will only %&^&(* on the entire *(&))()(." He may not have a complete translation but he could roughly figure out what it was saying with context clues.
Jace walked forward and drew his pistol. One of the one horned demons seemed to hear him as it spun around and called out a warning. But it was the last thing it did as its head snapped backwards when the first bullet made contact with the demon’s head.
But as he turned to fire at the other two. One of them disappeared in a red smoke and then reappeared in front of him. Grabbing and lifting his hand with the Pyre. It was almost instantaneous. He would have missed what the demon did if he was not paying attention.
Jace’s free hand snaked forward and his longsword was called out of thin air. Or rather it was called forth in the demon’s chest and was protruding out the other side. The demon froze and coughed up blood. But Jace was already moving on as he spun and yanked the sword through the demon’s body.
As it fell to the ground he was turning to the yellow demon who spun around and roared. But he was quickly cut off as Jace cut through the yellow demon’s body and split him in two. Jace took a moment as he dematerialized the sword and looked over the three demons again. When he realized he had destroyed the thing the yellow demon was using to communicate he frowned.
Jace clicked his tongue and looked toward the walled city where the Oda forces were regrouping. He might as well make his way over there.