Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 449: Iron Boar District

Chapter 449: Iron Boar District
He walked through a crowd of homeless individuals entering into the underground area that consisted of an area underneath a number of residential buildings and financial offices. This was the Iron Boar district, the unlabeled district that had gained a life of its own when it should have just been nothing. The homeless had originally made an encampment here but eventually the renegades and rogue criminals that were chased out of their own home had gathered here.
This eventually spiraled out of control until there was an entire lawless zone that the police could not do anything about. While the Victorium’s hands were tied because the financial offices were already making complaints about their presence. So now there was just this area where the strong survived and the only order of law was that what the Iron Boar said was law.
He only made it a few feet into the underground area before he was suddenly stopped. He slowly looked up at a large rhino beastman. He was clearly experimented on or had once used a rare type of drug because the side of his face was covered in cracked skin that had a red glow that was pulsing.
The rhino beastman grunted and leaned forward huffing out a puff of red smoke that Jace stopped himself from breathing in. "Go back where you came from mutie, a skinny toothpick like you will get eaten alive." He then grinned and licked his lips. "Now that I think about it, you look pretty tasty. Maybe I should have the chef whip you up into a nice bone broth."
"Bone broth?" Jace had to admit even for him this was a bit weird and out of the box. But he could roll with it. "Bitch please," Jace scoffed and waved his hand away like he was swatting a fly. "I am clearly barbeque only sauteed to- perfection!" Jace suddenly swung his leg around and kicked one of the rhinos legs out from under him.
The rhino beastman fell to his knee with one of his legs at an odd angle and opened his mouth to scream. But Jace grabbed his face-horn and kneed his jaw with as much strength as he thought might be necessary to knock him out without killing him. There was a crisp snap and crack as the rhino beast man fell to the ground unconscious with what Jace could only assume was a broken jaw.
"Huh..." Jace hummed as he looked at the unconscious rhino beastman and then to the horn he had accidently torn off. He may not know much about the rhino beastman. But he knew all of those tribes of beastman have their own rituals and a decorated horn seemed like something a rhino beastman might not want to lose. "Oh well, mine now." Jace decided as he slid the horn into a pocket. But it failed to fit all the way and was partially sticking out.
He then began walking deeper toward the center of the district looking for a shady corner he could call his own. After a few minutes and accidently spotting several corner gals with their customers, he finally found an alleyway and pulled out the radiation sniffer device.
Switching it on the device started beeping quietly. While the display showed the specific isotope he had preprogrammed into the device along with an indicator of the direction the device was picking up the isotope’s faint signature.
He started following it deeper into the alley until his aviator glasses picked up a heavy isotope signature. His glasses interface highlighted a spot that had a walking area that was wide enough for vehicles. In fact there was a ’carriage’ made of scrap that was being pulled through the area with several boxes of and cases of what looked like military rations.
He frowned and walked past that going toward another alley way. He walked through it and out the other side where he found another heavy signature right outside of what looked like a storage building. Almost immediately after his glasses detected a massive amount of lethal radiation coming from the building.
"Damn." He quietly cursed and moved back into the alleyway and looked up the sides before using his electrical vision and looking inside the building. He saw only one of them had a second floor that was unoccupied.
He walked up to the metal door and quickly yanked the handle. There was a quiet cracking as the door broke. He had twisted the handle so fast and strongly that the door frame had deformed into a twisted shape. There was a quiet fall of screws onto the floor as Jace slipped into the building.
He moved quickly from the door that led to the back alley right up the stairs and onto the second floor. It was a mostly open area but there was a wall that ran between the stairs and the window that Jace wanted to watch out of. He slipped past that and touched his comm piece. "I just found it." He announced as he stood near the edge of the window and watched the storage building. From his angle he could only see the garage entrance and one of the alleyway doorways.
There were a few minutes of silence before Vana spoke up. "Is it located in an abandoned maintenance shed? Because I am not seeing you at my radiation hotspot."
Jace frowned and looked at the storage building. That was definitely not a maintenance shed and it looked like they came right in from the side and brought it to this place. That did not give extra time to go through any of the other areas. He followed it from the edge right to this location. "No, it is located in a storage building."
"Mine is at a basketball court. It is being guarded by a gang of hyena beastmen." Nila informed them.
"I have one as well, it is actually being packed up into a commercial truck." Ulin announced.
Jace frowned and then cursed. "They brought it in together and then split it up into multiple parts. We are going to have to chase each part individually. Nila and Vana, mark your locations and meet up with Ulin." Jace then began marking his own location. "I will meet up with you-"
He stopped speaking and spun around as he heard a creak of wood. He saw a flash of metal and then felt an impact as he was hit off his feet. Next thing he knew he was waking up outside on the ground.
He pulled himself up just as he watched a massive bear beastman jump out of the broken wall of the second floor he had just been watching from inside of. He was covered in various scars and cuts and was missing one of his eyes with an eyepatch covering the injury. In his hands was a massive metal hammer.
"Ah..." Jace groaned. "How the hell did you manage to sneak up on me?" Jace asked sarcastically. He then noticed as several others came out of the woodwork. Some from alleyways. Some stepped out of buildings. He pulled off his damaged glasses and put them in a pocket while he looked around for the radiation detector.
Even the metal door of the building he watched opened and some people walked out with weapons in hand. "You know... we do not like nosey people in our district." The bear announced loudly as he waved his hand. "Usually you would be dead, I hit you with enough force to dent a space ship. But you brushed it off like it was nothing, so I think we should keep going until you stop moving."
"That must be a very complex plan for someone with such a small brain." Jace softly clapped and nodded his head as he assessed the people that had surrounded him. It did not look like they all came from the same gang or group. But there was a good chance that this district was strictly against outsiders. "I think I speak for everyone when I say that I am very proud."
The bear beastman growled, "you are dead." He then nodded in Jace’s direction. "Get him!" He ordered.
The first to jump forward was a monkey beastman who came at him with a crowbar in hand. He made a high screeched noise as he swung toward Jace’s head.
Jace grunted and sidestepped. Then he yanked the crowbar out of the monkey beastman’s hand and used his free hand to pull the taser out of one of his pockets and jammed it under the monkey beastman’s armpit before it released a jolt of electricity that had the monkey beastman jolting and making a comical chittering noise before falling to the ground unconscious.
The rest of them froze for a moment and the bear beastman growled. Jace shrugged as he flipped the crowbar in his hand so he could get a better grip on the weapon. "I hope you did not think I would go down that easily."