Blood splattered the walls as the group of enemy soldiers were killed by his team. Uti, Jul’an, and Rook were all ruthless in their response as they came across the enemy. Since they were all unarmored and some even unarmed, their weapons turned them into puddles of flesh and blood stains.
Jace did not even have to fire upon them as they moved through the halls. It was honestly disappointing to go through this cruiser and not be able to do anything because the enemies were not competent enough.
They eventually arrived at their destination. The dual doors were across from the main reactor chamber. So it was a lot more heavily populated and had some guards in Infantry Armor at the door.
As they came into view the guards turned their weapons on them. But Jace fired several shots with his Dragon’s Breath. It tore through the basic unshielded armor like it was nothing. Killing both guards instantly and leaving smoking corpses and infantry armor.
"Uti, Jul’an, and Rook, go into the reactor room. Kill all the engineers, then disable the ship’s power source. Then set up a trap in case someone tries to fix it. We want this cruiser disabled and unable to fight back." Jace ordered as he walked to the pair of doors opposite it.
They slid open and he stopped in his tracks. It was an odd room. The center of the room was the clear focus of whatever was going on. It had a cylinder the size of a person. Running from the cylinder to other parts of the room were several tubes and wires.
Most of them went to a station that had buttons and levers. But a few went to a glowing glass container that appeared to contain a whitish pink energy that was flickering about. As he looked at it he realized that he could see what appeared to be something similar to ice appearing and disappearing along the walls of the container.
But before he could get mesmerized by the odd sight he could hear the faintest of scratches against the floor along with someone gasping in what was probably shock or fear. Once he heard that he focused his senses and could make out a heartbeat. He looked in the direction and silently moved to the wall and walked alongside it.
He arrived at the metal pedestal with a single lever. Hiding behind it was an old man with white hair and glasses. He was looking on the other side of the pedestal, probably looking for him. After a moment of not finding him, the old man sighed and turned back around.
But when he did he saw Jace standing above him he sucked in a breath and screamed, "Aaghh!" As Jace grabbed the old man in a lab coat by his scruff he lifted him up into the air. Then Jace began looking around to see if there was anyone else that was hiding and he was just not seeing or sensing them.
After determining there were not any of them and annoyed by the old man’s screaming. Jace threw the man onto the ground, "shut up." Jace ordered as he looked over the strange energy container again. "What were you doing here?" Jace asked as he walked over and touched the container, making a mental blueprint.
"I- I am not telling you anything Emperor loyalist-" Getting quickly annoyed as the scientist somehow grew a spine. Jace grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and threw him into the chamber and then pressed a button to close the door to the cylinder.
"I suggest you hurry up and tell me or you are going to be a prime example of what I should not do with this machine." Jace declared as he moved over to the largest pedestal and looked around for the power button. "Now I suggest you start talking quickly."
The scientist began slamming his fists against the glass window of the cylinder. "No! Do not mess with the controls you scum! You have no idea what you are doing!"
Jace hummed to himself as he found a button that looked right he then pressed the button. A moment later and the wires hummed to life along with the cylinder as they lit up with the same energy that was in the container. He still felt mesmerized by it, but now he felt disgusted by the machines for some reason. But he still had an act to put on if he wanted to know what this was. "Oh hey, looks like I turned it on. Now I just have to turn this up to maximum power for whatever it does. Maybe you will explode, I have not made a person explode in a while."
The scientist stopped slamming his fists against the glass, "wait I will tell you! It is an energy transference tube. It allows a person to be instantly moved from one location to another. If the tube and equipment is not correctly calibrated it will just tear a person apart at the molecular level."
"Oh? That sounds fun!" Jace looked down and made it look like he was doubling down on his efforts to find the right controls.
"I told you what you wanted, what else did you need to know?" The scientist asked in a panic.
"Why was a revolutionary discovery not brought before the emperor or the appropriate authorities?" Jace asked. He could almost feel a slight tingle at the back of his mind like he was onto something. Or actually it felt more like something was reaching out and agreeing with him.
The scientist looked nervous as he prepared to answer. "Umm... it is because it violates several of the empire’s laws regarding enslaving nonhumans." Jace stopped and looked at the scientist freezing his body to encourage the scientist to continue. "The energy used to transfer a person from one place to another is only found in a living sentient being that we found. We managed to capture one and we are using it to power this device."
Jace blinked in surprise under his helmet and now understood what he had been feeling. This electrical based sentient being was kin to him. So he could feel it reaching out through the controls, the wires, and just about everything else that contained the energy in this room. He took a breath and then accepted the hand it was offering as he put his hands on the pedestal in front of him.