Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 464: Back to the Mountain

As night emerged on the snowy mountain top and the evening chill came in as the guards for the remote tavern changed out. "Has anything changed?" One of the new guards asked as he rubbed his hands together to warm them up. He had unfortunately forgotten his gloves today.

"More visitors than usual. Most of them came in through the mountain pass. Only one crew landed their ship down around the curve. Nothing much else to say. It has been an unusually tame day." The guard informed them. "Although it already feels like the night is going to be cold. I will ask the boss to set out some heating gear."

"Thanks." The first guard grunted as the two guards from the previous shift moved inside the bustling tavern.

The pair of guards left outside looked at each other. "I wonder why there are so many people here this time. Most of them are staying for a long time as well."

"Apparently the boss has information about an auction. A lot of them are waiting for him to start selling the information. I don't know much beyond that." The other guard told the first one. Then he nodded at the night sky. "Look at that." It looked like a comet's arc was visible in the night sky.

"That is-" he stopped as for a moment the comet looked like it disappeared before it reappeared again. "What was that?"

"What was what?" The other guard asked, oblivious to the slight flickering of the comet.

"The comet disappeared for a moment." The first guard told the other guard.

The first guard frowned and looked up to the sky. "I am not seeing anything. Maybe it was a passing ship."

"Without warning or landing lights? These Victorium folks have got their requirements heavily enforced. Not even smugglers fly with improper equipment now." The other guard waved him off. "You didn't take anything before our shift did you?"

"No, of course I did not. I heard what happened to the last guy that got caught high during their shift." The first guard scoffed and then looked at the sky. "I swear I saw something."

"Man… we have only been out here for a few-" Now the other guard stopped and looked around in confusion. "Did you hear that?"

The first guard looked at the other guard and then a look of understanding dawned on him. "Oh, I get it. Yeah, you can call me crazy all you want and make fun of me. But I am telling you now, I saw something." The first guard then looked forward with a huff.

"No I swear-" The other guard stopped speaking after a moment.

The first guard then looked over but he was gone. "Where-" he did not get a chance to finish his thought as an armored hand slammed his head into the ground and there was a sickening crunch and splat as blood began leaking from the partially exploded head. The other guard's body fell to the ground as Asher dropped to the ground. The other guards had been snapped as a look of shock was stuck on his face from his final moment alive.

"The front door guards are down." Rook announced as he moved to the side of the door with his weapon ready.

"They are called bouncers." Jace chuckled as he walked up in a business suit. The only visible weapon on him was a Magnus Revolver that was in a holster on his thigh. "Now how do you want to enter Ulin?" Jace asked over the communication channel.

"We have entered through the back door successfully." Ulin announced. "Rook, wait a moment and then knock on the door."

"Do you mean 'knock' as in knock down the door? Or 'knock' as in use an explosive to blow the door off its hinges?" Rook asked after hesitating for a moment.

"No, I mean that I want you to knock at the door and for Jace to answer." Ulin clarified with an audible sigh over the communication channel. Rook looked at Jace and he just shrugged.

Rook then slammed his fist against the door before moving out of view of the metal slot. The same way that Asher was hidden out of view. After wrapping his fist against the door a few times there was no answer for a few seconds until the slot opened. A pair of eyes were visible that looked around but zeroed in on Jace who stepped forward so he was more visible in the light.

"Who are you? What happened to the guards?" The man asked.

"Bouncers and did I do the secret knock wrong? Should I try again?" Jace tilted his head and tried to look confused.

It seemed to work because the man raised an eyebrow before the slot closed and then they could hear several metal noises as a number of locks began being undone. Jace looked over at Rook who just shrugged before looking back at the door.

The door then opened and light flooded out of the tavern and onto the dark, cold and rocky area. The man stepped out with a bat in hand. "Now I am only going to ask once-" Jace honestly could not tell if it was the dead bodies or the barrel of the weapon that Rook pointed at his head that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Ulin, the door is open." Rook quietly announced through the communication channel.

"Move in, in 3…2…1!" Ulin called out.

It was followed by Rook knocking the man out with the butt of his gun. The man fell to the ground like a bag of bricks while Asher moved past him and into the tavern as several metal canisters fell throughout the room. An explosion of smoke along with an actual explosion shook the tavern and the mountain. Rook disappeared into the smoke, quickly following Asher.

Jace waited a moment before he began walking in. The smoke was already dissipating. He whistles at the giant hole in the ceiling that Nulltone and Bella had come through. He then looked over at Ulin who was holding a weapon pointed at a short and chubby man. She and K came through a hidden backdoor.

The actual formation had two coming in two known entrances and the last two coming in the entrance they made. It left plenty of destruction but surprisingly the lights and fires in the room were still going. Most of the people in the room were weather knocked down or in a gun standoff.

"You must be the famous Mountain Man!" Jace called out as he waved his hand at Ulin. She relaxed and backed away but kept her weapon trained on the man who had a revolver in front of him. It looked like he had been in the midst of cleaning it.

The Mountain Man looked back at Ulin and then at Jace who walked over and grabbed a chair from another table before loudly dragging it across the room so he was sitting across from Mountain Man. "You are clearly someone, I know that much. But I just had my world rocked so I apologize if I can not immediately place you."

Jace chuckled and then looked at Ulin with a toothy grin, "you hear that Ulin? You managed to rock our host's world!" Mountain Man looked back just as the butt of Ulin's gun smacked him in the face with a crack. He groaned before spitting out a globule of blood and a metal tooth. Jace made a fake expression of disgust. "Ooo… nasty. Now then, about why I am here…"

"I am not going to tell you anything." Mountain Man declared as he leaned back in his chair.

Jace clicked his tongue and shook his head. "I was actually going to pay you for the information…" That was a lie, he never planned to pay for anything. "But if you are not willing to give it to me when I am offering a carrot then I will just have to use a stick." He looked around the room, "now let's see…"

"Wait!" Mountain Man raised a hand in panic as he heard Ulin's squad all cocked their weapons. Getting ready to fire their guns at their respective targets. He looked around and then looked down at the partially dismantled weapon on the table in front of him and grinned. He then looked up at Jace. "It would hurt my reputation if I just handed you the information that you wanted. But… we could play for it." Mountain Man offered as Jace held up a hand to wave and signal for Ulin's people to pull the trigger.

Jace turned around and looked at Mountain Man before slowly lowering his hand. Jace raised an eyebrow. "I am listening."

Mountain Man waved a hand at the dismantled revolver in front of him. "A classic game of Russian Roulette."

"Yeah but how would we win? That could just end up with a bullet in one of our heads." Jace pointed out as he walked back over and sat across from Mountain Man.

His mind running at a mind a minute, Mountain Man seemed to quickly come up with something. "Blanks. We will use blanks." Mountain Man offered.

Jace faked thinking about it for a moment before nodding. "Very well."