Jace blinked his eyes in confusion as he woke up. He felt disorientated as he woke up. He had to run through his own memories as he woke up. But he kept his body still just as a precaution.
He looked up and frowned at the site of a little girl that was tapping his visor and saying something. But his helmet had locked up and blocked out everything even sound when he crashed into the ground hard enough to knock him out. But the little girl had woken him up by interacting with his armor.
As he processed and remembered what happened his heads up display pulled up. There were no allied channels open, but his armor had received an encrypted message. A few hours had passed since he would have ’landed’ back on the planet. While the snooper program he had running in the background of his armor was picking up several different encrypted channels. He assumed they were all separate military groups. The amount reminded him he was in the middle of a multi-sided battle that had broken out.
Jace looked over the little girl. She was covered in dirt and had bandages over her cheek. She was wearing a uniform for a pre-academy school. He had heard about them and was shown a few but never saw them before.
"-armor are you going to wake up?" The girl asked as Jace allowed his sensors to start picking up noises. He ran a quick check on his armor as he waited and listened.
"Sylvia! Stop playing with the armor." A male voice quickly spoke up and Jace watched as the girl was pulled away. "I told you they will not respond, the soldier that was in that armor probably died."
"Like mama?" The girl asked with a voice that caused even Jace to feel a twinge of sadness.
He could see the man flinching as well at the little girl’s words. "Yes Sylvia, just like your mother they probably went to the beyond." The beyond one of the names for the afterlife. The belief surrounding the beyond and religion came into popularity since people traveled beyond the stars. So the beyond was something that could always be out of sight as a belief.
But Jace did not have to deal with this as another voice joined in. He recognized it was from a group of three soldiers. One of them had a medical insignia. Another was injured badly enough that his Infantry armor was cut open so the medical soldier could directly patch up the injury underneath. The last was covered in dirt and scorch marks but was otherwise seemingly undamaged. All three were wearing Infantry Armor that were marking them as military police. The one that spoke was the injured one, "we should move to a new location, those explosions are getting closer."
There were a few other civilians and some police in some basic body armor as well. One of the officers was the one that spoke up. It actually looked like the police in basic body armor were more put together. "We can not just keep moving from place to place. We need an objective to stay alive."
The police officers were probably former military while the actual soldiers were newer. But the civilians were deferring to the soldiers since they were in the actual military. Sometimes people forget that serving in the military was required for a time.
Jace quietly leaned up and then stood. None of them noticed him at first aside from the little girl. Sylvia, if he recalls that is what her father called her. She was not the only child among the civilians. There were fourteen civilians overall, six of those were children.
"Can it, you and the rest of the civies need to do what I say in order to survive!" The injured Infantry soldier growled out. "I am the highest ranking officer present." Jace looked down at the wide eyed girl and patted her head as he walked past. He walked right through the group huddle they had going on. "Hey!" The soldier called out, "what the hell-"
Jace ignored them and peeked out the door. "Explain the situation in full. I was knocked out for a few hours. I will need to make a plan to get you all to safety." Jace informed them as he looked up and down the street. The destruction had run rampant throughout the area he had landed. But not all of it was from falling debris. He could tell there were some from something else.
"I do not know who you are but-"
"How did you survive? The building and the crater you left makes it look like you flew in like a missile." One of the police officers asked, he had a hand on his weapon and was clearly ready to ready it.
"Advanced armor specs. I am Spectre Jace of the Cerberus Squad. We were leaving from Prince Cassius’ cruiser after infiltrating it, unfortunately he had already left. Then even more unfortunate was that one of my subordinates and I were left behind to prioritize the safety of the rest of our squad." Jace explained as he closed the door. "Now explain."
The police officers relaxed but the soldiers did not. It seemed some of them were following the publicity pieces that the military had been releasing. "A Spectre? We are not sure what is going on but groups of various militaries and several mercenaries have been moving between the streets. Capturing and executing people. The mechs are planet side and are causing problems but it seems the vessels in orbit are in a holding pattern." The officer explained.
His explanation was informative and painted a troubling picture. But as he looked at the blinking message he moved away from the door. The message was from Director Fenrir, he opened it up. "Jace, the rest of your squad managed to make it aboard The Elysium. We are backing out and reorientating to destroy all of the hostile military vessels. Until then you and Rook are on your own. We did not have much time to prepare. But we did set up a drop pod and send it in disguised as space debris. The tracking code is connected to this message. Jace, your and Rook’s orders are to prioritize the safety of civilians and then your own safety. May the system favor you."
Jace found the tracking number and added it to his objectives on his heads up display. He at the very least now had a destination. It appeared to only be a few miles from their location.
He was pulled from his thoughts by a set of noises that were coming down the street.