Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 438: Understanding Them

Chapter 438: Understanding Them
Jace then side stepped the downward swing from Sloth and spun around before kicking her in the chest. There was a loud cracking followed by the sound barrier breaking as his leg made contact. But then as he went to jump away he felt the gravity increase on him. His invisibility cut off as Envy came in swinging with both of his curved blades.
But Jace’s armor flared with yellow energy as his shielding bounced the blades off the joint that Envy went to slice. As he started moving back Jace fired a bullet from his magnum. The bullet cracked Envy’s green mask as he spun backwards.
Then Jace was pushed back by a wave of sand before he could finish off Envy. It only managed to push him back a few feet but it was enough for Envy to get distance from Jace. Getting away from him when Sloth had her gravity field up was their plan so far.
But Jace had to bide time to find Greed. He was still hiding among the sand silhouettes. So he was using his senses tuned up to try to locate them. But the nearby fighting was distracting even for him.
Some squads from the surface had made their way down and were fighting the few demons that were left to keep the prisoners in line. At this point the giant prison the demons had down here was in a full-on riot. But Jace had a feeling it would work out in their favor since they outnumbered their enemy.
As Jace took a moment he flipped open his revolver and the shells fell out of the chamber. He then dematerialized his knife and took a moment to reload his revolver while the Sin demons seemed to be taking this chance to recover.
His strike against Sloth had disoriented her and caused a crack through her frontal shell. But that was quickly disappearing again as her shell or armor seemed to be repairing itself with the black mist that appeared around her. She was not the only one, Envy’s mask had begun repairing as well.
His helmet was picking the signals coming from the mist and identified it as a semi-sentient nanotechnology. Far more active than the system he had in his own blood. But it was also less sentient and appeared to follow basic orders.
Looking at the surroundings that made up the red walls and ground that had not been destroyed. He could see something just a bit bigger moving along the lines of red. His helmet scan showed it as a spider, but it was a biomechanical creature. These demons had a lot of strange abilities and the way they presented themselves was like a bunch of magical creatures from fantasy.
But the reality was that they used a bunch of technological advancements that were superior to support themselves. If he was right then it meant that their abilities came from the place his abilities did. They were biological evolutions of their specific bloodline.
He knew his and other humans abilities were all an offshoot of physical and psychic abilities. Like a physical enhancement could be the result of a temporary chemical imbalance that a person could withstand. Or like his own control over electricity which is a result of him controlling his own electrical impulses like they were a hand muscle.
These demons probably did the same thing, but theirs were coming out in strange ways. Like Sloth, she had foresight and gravity control. But what she should actually have is a strong telekinetic power as well as an instinctual ability to calculate the outcome in any given situation. Thinking back now, she was never able to put gravity on him without seeing him. She could do it to the air around him or where he was moments before. But if she could not see him then she could not use her ability on him.
Envy and Greed’s abilities should be the same. He had not noticed Envy’s ability just yet. But Greed’s ability was clearly the control over sand. Which he had already figured out. Mostly because he had a similar ability. Greed controlled the sand by manipulating the attraction forced between each particle. Jace could replicate the ability with practice.
Now the question was, did they know what they were doing or had their technology regressed so far that they did not realize what they were doing was not magic. As he side stepped a spike of sand he was starting to move more easily. He was getting used to the way these three fought together.
Dodge, block, parry, kick. He repeated the motions for a few minutes before noticing an opening as he was pushed up toward the wall of the cave.
As Sloth came in for an attack. He pulled himself up as her attack landed just short of him. Then while in the air he kicked off the wall.
BANG! BOOM!
The wall cracked and dust fell from the roof as he propelled himself off the wall. Going straight for Greed. He had figured out his location from the motions of his electricity that were going through the sand. Now that he found him he could kill them.
Or at least that is how it appeared. But as Jace went towards Greed he could already see Envy appearing in front of him. His green mask had changed and his body had turned bony for the moment. Just as he thought, Envy could mimic his allies’ abilities.
Envy tried to slice through him. But Jace’s longsword appeared in his hand. There was a screech of metal followed by a bright spark before Jace was landing between Envy and Greed. He held his blade to the side after following through with his strike. A bit of green ooze was stuck on the edge of it.
But Envy’s form slowly revered to his white haired one before a cut appeared on his neck and waist. Then along with his two curved swords which fell into pieces. Envy’s body fell apart with green ooze pooling on the ground.
The exchange happened so quickly that even Jace’s body was in pain. He was taking a moment as he processed the exchange.
As Envy had blocked the strike, he had used Envy’s block to steady himself and slice through the blades and Envy’s neck after he augmented his speed by sending electrical signals straight to his body parts. The result had him moving at ten times his current natural speed. But it also caused nerves and blood vessels through his body to burst. After slicing through Envy’s neck he did another spin and sliced through Envy’s midsection as well.
But now he could feel his blood vessels and nerves repairing themselves as he stood up and watched Sloth jump into frame. She picked up the shocked Greed and glanced at the dead Envy before she jumped upward and launched herself off a wall in the opposite direction from where he originally came from.
He had to stand and wait as his body repaired itself. It was painful but he distracted himself by pulling up the data from the battle that was going on overhead and all around him and checking in with Solisa.
"Solisa, what is the status of the battle?" Jace asked as he pulled the feeds from various sources. A few mechs, a few heavy armored vehicles, a few infantry helmet cams. All of them showed different views of the battle.
"Major Jace, thank you for rejoining us. Captain Tyler is dealing with the red mech and the demon mech unit that suddenly appeared. Sergeant K rejected your order and is taking a column of heavy armor units past enemy lines to chase down the two sins that ran from you earlier. Then the underground prison has been mostly liberated, I have word that most of them are joining us in the fight against the demons." Captain Solisa quickly explained. "I just started our first bombing run on the demons. So aside from your fight, everything is going as well as it could."
"My fight resulted in the death of one of the other Sins, Envy they called him. In addition to Pride, who I killed earlier. That is two Sins that I have killed. Have their bodies retrieved. I will grab my weapon and rejoin the forces. Since the Sins want to run, I will have to force them to come to me." Jace declared as his longsword dematerialized and he looked around for his rotary heavy machine gun. "Tell me about the rest of the planet."
"Small pockets of demon resistance. But nothing they cannot handle. The demons at the other location you specified are putting up more of a resistance. In addition there appears to be a special demon that they are struggling with. I believe it is a Duke’s son. With your permission I will send a bombing run to destroy the partial structure before they manage to power it up." Solisa informed him quickly.
Jace picked up his discarded heavy machine gun. "Make sure you get a scan of it before you fully disable it."
"Already done." Solisa responded with a smug voice.
"Then go for it." Jace answered as he jumped up. His body was still in pain but he could tell the damage was almost completely healed already. Although there was a good chance the inside of his armor would need a cleaning after this. He landed on the edge of the cave opening with a thud and looked at the line of humans and others that had set up sandbags. It was time for him to act like the commander that his rank denoted him as.