Even at light speed, the Mysteria system was a long distance. So the kids and Ace had lots of time to get to know and annoy one another.
In a room that resembled an egg, Ace and Asander sparred lightly. Asander was a skilled combatant but disliked brawling. Instead, he preferred to grapple. Ace hated grappling, mainly because he wasn't trained in many holds or submissions. He preferred landing a few well timed, and precise strikes to the weak points of his opponents.
This is why he felt for Asanders ribs closest to his lungs while he felt Asander cinch the chokehold he currently had Ace in. Once he found them, he drove his elbow hard into Asanders ribs, causing Asander to loosen the hold. Ace slipped out, allowing him to land several more blows into Asanders' ribs. Keeping his younger opponent out of air. Ace then struck Asanders, calves with a sweeping kick, causing him to fall on his back.
Ace pressed his knee to Asanders' chest and raised his fist in preparation to strike.
"Yield?" He asked.
Asander nodded after a moment and was let up.
"You fight kinda dirty," Asander complained.
"So will your enemies. Not everyone is gonna play fair, and they are definitely not gonna care that you're still a kid." Ace explained.
An alert sounded, which caused everyone to gravitate toward the cockpit.
"Mysteria. it lives up to its name, " Malreki remarked.
"That's one it's moons, Pulros." Ace corrected, then examined the coordinates again. "These don't actually lead to the planet but the moon. That's why Enzion sounded the alarm…"
The team gathered at his sides peering at the scan readouts of the moon below.
Neira smiled confidently, "No noxious gas, no structures and no life forms bigger than my knee. Cake walk."
Rip shook his head, "but where did the beam come from?"
Alessa furrowed her brows and took another look at the seismic readouts. "It's not on the moon…" she said slowly, "it's inside the moon."
Asander stared at Alessa before responding, "how can you tell? I just see seismic quakes."
Alessa pointed to the most recent seismic readout, "See that symbol? At the academy they taught us about the war with the Venratu.
The Tiberian army had trouble fighting Venratu forces because they would mine and create miles of tunnels. The Tiberian army would enter, get lost, then get picked off by the much smaller Venratu forces. However, the Tiberians adapted and developed technology that can tell the difference between mining and earthquakes. Using that technology, they were able to end the war with strategic bombardment which caved in the tunnels.``
Alessa pointed again at the readout right as seismic activity was recorded, "that's not an earthquake, it's mining."
Ace sat in the pilot's chair and brought the ship into orbit of the moon under cloak.
Upon landing he and the team suited up and exited Enzion by twos.
Asander and Rip investigated to the right.
Walking as stealthily as they while looking for signs of a base. They found a singular small metal door that seemed to open by sliding up and was automatic.
Asander and Rip stared at the door for a brief moment before searching for some kind of trigger the door to open.
"You think it's voice activated" Asander asked out of frustration and sarcasm.
Right as Rip was about to answer the door slid open to reveal two guards now standing
Opposite of the two boys.
The guards reacted almost immediately they both began to reach for their guns but before either could grasp their weapons Asander flits and strikes both in the jaw with enough force to knock both unconscious.
With a smirk, Asander half turned to Rip.
"The door was not voice activated!" Rip retorted as he stepped over the unconscious men, "why did you knock them out instead of eliminating them?"
"Because.." Asander grunted as he picked one of the guards up and carried him to a nearby door which turned out to be a storage closet, "I'm not a psychopath and I'm not gonna-" he said while pushing the man inside who then began to fall forward on Asander, "get back in there." Asander told the unconscious man who he then pushed back into place, "I'm not gonna kill unless I have to." He finished his original comment as he picked up the second man and put him in the closet as well.
Rip examined the door controls intent on jamming the door open so the rest of the team can enter. He called out to Darrec, "Darrec, can you hear me?"
"Ow." Came Darrecs annoyed voice.
"Yeah…you don't have to yell, dude, it's telepathy." Devika answered.
"Sorry, we found an entrance." Rip explained in a softer voice he hoped.
"The door was voice activated" Asander chimed in. Followed by a distinct sound of a blow landing and Asander exclaiming, "ow"
"Don't move. We are on our way." Ace commanded. It was rare to see him exert authority given how phadorians feel about being commanded.
While the others made their way to the boys, Rip and Asander made themselves busy by prepping things.
They jammed the door so it couldn't close on the others and through some tampering with the Security pad next to the door they disabled any alarms that jamming the door may set off.
Next, they took point on each side of the hallway and held their position.
There were several things that Aron knew.
He was by many different accounts handsome, he is undeniably rich, and there was someone breaking into one of his facilities.
With the push of a few buttons, a halo screen appeared showing two boys. They were identical twins with the exception of their tools and hair. One had black hair while the other had white as if someone had ran out of ink.
As he looked on, more trespassers entered through the door they had apparently jammed judging by the fact that he couldn't close it from his controls. With a sigh Aron tapped a button which caused another screen to appear. Before long a man's face filled the screen.
Aron began speaking, cutting off the man's false flattery, "there are intruders in your facility. They are mkƙ Deploy the guards, wipe the hard drives and commander, get yourself out of there. Make sure you open the blast doors now so that way you can leave faster."
At that Aron hung up and continued watching his screens.
The effect was immediate. The alarms sounded and guards began mobilizing, taking up defensive positions.
,"Maybe those are greeting alarms?" Ace quipped which caused Neira to roll her eyes.
"Someone obviously knows we're here, which means-" Alessa placed a small device with a halo screen and keyboard against the wall and began typing. After a moment she smiled, "someone was watching us through the cameras but I cut them. Now, only we have access to the surveillance of the base."
Rip peaked around the corner checking for enemies. He was spotted and almost roasted by a laser. Luckily for him Ace pulled him back and placed the boy behind him.
"Next time, peak then hide. Lasers equal hide, no lasers equals no hide."
Ace reached into his bag and brought out a new sort of gun about as long as his arm with hinges at half way that allowed it to bend around corners. The gun also came outfitted with a screen.
Ace held the gun out and flicked his wrist causing the gun to bend around the corner, at that point the screen blinked on and Ace began poking at different points on the screen. Once he was satisfied, with a grin, he said, "watch this!" and pulled the trigger.
There was a loud bang followed by several thuds. The group peaked around the corner and saw that what was once a crowded hallway with guards was now a crowded hallway with corpses of the guards.
"Huh." Malreki started, "and they say you can't shoot around corners."
"Shun the non-believers." Ace responded, "later though."
The group made their way to the control room which they found empty.
Alessa walked to the computers and began trying to pull up any evidence they could use.
Darec reached out with his mind and found the crew had mostly abandoned the station and had boarded a large vessel in the docking bay.
At this point, Alessa slammed her fist on the computer. "They erased everything!"
Darec turned and matched Alessas eyes, "is it possible that they copied the information onto a datapad than erased everything here?" He asked cooly.
Alessa nodded, "it's more than possible."
"Devika." Darec sent his sister the way to the hangar and the engine room, "can you stall them? I cannot."
Devika nodded, reaching into the engine room and began to crush the engine.
Rip felt useless so he turned to Ace to give an explanation.
"Darec can feel the ship and maybe stop it but last time he practiced doing something like that he ended up crushing the whole ship."
Ace nodded, "wouldn't want that. That could destroy our evidence, we should probably make our way to the hangar. They might be able to repair the damage."
Once the group had reached the hangar, two things became apparent almost immediately.
The first was that the base commander was stranded in the hangar and could not escape, the second was that there was a man standing directly opposite to them.
This man, if he could be described that way, was a tall, slender shape that dressed himself in gray and black. His eyes never left the group as he began to speak, "Commander, i have been sent to retrieve the information you currently have in your possession. It would behoove you to hand me the information so that way our employer knows it is safe.
The commander exited the ship from the rear and approached the new entity.
"I was so worried i would be unable to make it out" He began but was cut off by a single gesture from the entity, he gasped then fell to the floor in two pieces.
My employer insists there be no witnesses" The entity stated, his eyes never left Ace. Almost synchronized, the two men removed their coats from their shoulders and let it fall to the ground at their feet.
No time was wasted, both men drew their guns and began firing.
As Ace suspected, the man he was facing also had a healing factor much like his own.
The entity was faster then Ace in terms of firing more rounds but Ace was surgical with his shots. While the entity had fired more rounds initially causing more damage, Ace aimed for the shoulder, elbow or the eyes.
As the damage built he put his left gun to his side and pushed a button the side of the barrel.
He probed mentally, which felt strange given he wasn't a telepath, for the link that was established earlier.
"What's up" came Darrecs voice.
"I need you to scan the floor for an object that fell to the floor while I was being shot repeatedly. It would look like a black ingot."
Darrec scanned the floor and started to edge from his cover to grab it.
A blast from the entity's gun caught his shoulder. He quickly moved back to cover.
"I can't get it, he can adjust his aim too quickly! He clipped me but luckily I had my shield just over my skin." Darrec reported.
A small chirp alerted Ace that his left gun was ready. A strategic shot to the eyes gave him the distraction he needed to raise his left gun, aim center mass and fire.
A green laser shot across the room and hit the entity, causing his upper body to explode leaving only his lower body.
As soon as Ace fired his gun, Darrec slid into place to grab the device. He saw Aces plan and threw the small device into the healing upper body of the entity.
The entity growled as his mouth reformed, "foolish little insects, you cannot kill me! I am of higher blood!"
Due to the fact that he had been blown apart before, the Entity had installed small metal plates in his hands in order to make finding his guns easier. The plates were designed to be specially magnetic to his guns and nothing else. The Entity flexed his hands and both of his guns flew into his hands.
As the Entity raised his guns to fire at the group, Ace opened the hangar doors. Everybody hung on as space tried to rip them away forever. The Entity laughed and while everyone else struggled to hang on he began walking toward the group.
Ace pointed his gun at the entity and pulled the trigger.
That very second the entity exploded and his pieces flew out the airlock.
Once every piece of him was out, Ace closed the hangar doors.
"Enzion." He whispered into the comm, "pick up needed."