Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 534: Lost Soul

Victor did not know how long he had been walking across this rickety wooden bridge but he could tell it was at least ten minutes. He could start to see the other end which was only a few feet away.

Crack!

One of the planks gave out under him and he fell but managed to grab another one. "Damnit..." He mumbled under his breath as he shakily pulled himself up and onto the bridge. But as he did he could hear the creaking of the wood a lot louder this time.

Crack!

As another one gave out from under him he threw himself forward and onto the solid ground of the end of the bridge. He started to pull himself up but at some point through his jaunt through the cold he started to lose feeling in his limbs. But after the quick tensing of his muscles he could now feel the overwhelming pain as his eyelids began closing as he fell to the ground.

Before he went unconscious the last thing he could see was the silhouette of a figure moving towards him.

"A lost soul seeking help? Do not worry friend. You are always welcome with us."

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The commander of the Archway was a chatterbox. Which was usually not an issue. But he was starting to find it annoying. Mostly because he was trying to look through all of the screens. Looking for anything out of place.

"-is also a number of protocols we have in place so that everyone, no matter how lowborn a person is. They know to stop and bow even slightly toward possible superiors. Whether it is just a ship landing or an actual parade."

Sherlock’s head snapped over and looked at the commander. "What did you just say?"

"I- what?" The commander looked shocked that he actually responded this time. "I was talking about our soldiers and how all of them have been trained to bow in the direction of soldiers and commanders from off world."

Sherlock thought back and remembered how the horse riding soldier was carrying a package. At the time he dismissed it. But now... "You have been sending people on mounts such as horses and other creatures with packages into the city. Why?"

"Because we needed multiple packages to be delivered to various parts of the city and part of the lockdown protocol prevents all forms of traffic unless absolutely necessary. Why? What happened?" Now he was less surprised and more invested in Sherlock’s answer.

"What circumstances would allow one to ignore the protocol you just told me about? Is there an emergency delivery or anything like that that allows them to ignore the bowing protocol?" Sherlock asked as he walked over to one of the station operators that was looking through old footage.

"What? No. The only situation where they can ignore the bowing protocol is in the event of a battle or imminent battle. But even then those within proximity must kneel or bow depending on which one is less dangerous. So no, if a mount rider was riding past as you landed they should have stopped, got off their horse, and bowed." The commander explained.

Sherlock grinned unsteadily. "Pull up footage during the time of my landing. We are looking for a horse rider carrying a box. He would be riding out just as we walked down the ramp."

"What is going on?" the commander asked in confusion.

"The foreigner slipped through the bridge disguised as one of our soldiers." Sherlock explained.

"Then we should lock down the city and-"

"No." West interrupted. "Do not lock down the city. If he thinks he snuck past then it is all the better for us. Instead we should silently follow his tracks while closing the bridges to the other cities completely so not even our soldiers can travel across it."

"There!" Sherlock shouted and the station operator stopped and sent the image of a man on horseback to a bigger screen.

"He... looks human." The commander pointed out in doubt as he looked over at Sherlock who shrugged.

"Could he be the lighthouse keeper- nevermind." West began and then stopped herself. "The lighthouse keeper is a woman. So the woman is on the scaleback and the horseback rider is the foreigner."

Sherlock grinned and nodded. They knew the lighthouse keeper was a woman because of the clothes inside the house. Along with a few other items. "Indeed. But he is not quite human. See if you can get a picture of his face." He told the operator before walking over and joining West and the commander in looking at the picture. "You can barely see it but his skin is a shade too pale. His eyes are slightly glowing. Then his ears are pointed at the top."

"He is watching something out of the corner of his eye." West pointed out.

"He is watching us as we descend the ramp." Sherlock explained. "He probably recognized Commander Ajax from when he shot off his hand."

"We need to call up the various special units aboard our ship." West decided as she seemed to realize something.

Then Sherlock noticed it a moment later as well. The man was unarmed. But they knew for a fact that he was likely the one that shot down the ships back in the village. If he was currently unarmed that means he had a way to hide it. Just like how those angels pull their weapons out of a subspace. "Track his path. We will operate tonight under the cover of darkness."

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"Buckwheat?"

The horse neighed and shook its head in response.

"Okay, what about Jet?"

The horse neighed again as Jace leaned back in a bundle of straw and clicked his tongue. "Okay not that name either." Jace hummed as he thought about names while the horse crunched some apples or at least something that looked like apples."

Somehow in a city full of somewhat advanced technology he had managed to find an abandoned barn. To be fair it was on the edge of the city. But it also ended up being in one of the few areas without any of the surveillance systems.

He even managed to steal a barrel of apples from a nearby store that seemed to make and sell its own brand of apple equivalent products. He did not want to call them apples because he did not remember apples ever coming in such a pure purple color. But the horse was eating them so it should be fine.

Jace slowly sat up and looked to the side, his eyes flashing blue for a moment as he grinned. "Well this is interesting. I will be back in a moment and hopefully with a name for you." Jace decided as he slowly snuck toward a corner of the barn.

As he snuck away, a number of figures entered through the second floor entrance quietly with their laser rifles at the ready. They were covered in tactical gear and on their heads were a set of night vision goggles that glowed red. As they entered through the second floor another group began entering through the first floor.

Since the barn was a big open area they looked around for only a moment before looking at each other in confusion. "We have cleared the barn. It appears the foreigner has left the premises." One of them reported.

Back in the operation vehicle a mile down the road. Sherlock frowned as he walked over to one of the screens. "Show me the heat reading of the building." It had a top down view of the barn and visible on the screen was the horse eating along with a person laying in a pile of hay. Then the person looked to the side and sat up. Then suddenly there was a flash of light and it appeared the camera was overloaded. It started fading and the person was gone. "He knew you were coming. Stay-"

"Aaarrghh!" Back at the barn one of the people on the second floor was crashing through the side of the barn and into the alley wall before crashing into the ground and going unconscious.

"What the hell! Did anyone see what-" The nearest operative started but suddenly he was flipping through the air before crashing into the first floor’s ground and passing out with a groan of pain.

That was two down. There were three more left up on the second floor area and all five left on the first floor area. Jace glanced at the horse again as he slowly moved towards the trio who moved so they were standing back to back.

"How is he doing this? Command what can you see?" One of them asked.

"Nothing." Sherlock sounded more shocked than anything else. "We cannot see anything. To us it just looks like you are moving around." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Well we can’t-" All three of them were suddenly flying through the air. One of them crashed into the wall of the barn and went unconscious. Another flew through a window and out into the street. The last one just barely missed the window and instead crashed into the edge before falling back into the ground with blood leaking from his head.