Chapter 297: Parade
"I must warn you that up until I made the announcement about us joining hands with the Victorium I was having attempts on my life almost every other day." The princess informed them as the open roofed float moved forward. The crowds were kept out of the main path by low level shielding that had likely been recently installed. It was probably useful for public events or hostile invasions.
But the shielding only covered up to a normal human’s head height. So it could still be fired over or easily scaled. There were even warning symbols displayed on the shielding, probably by holographic projections. It is an impressive use of military technologies in a civilian setting.
"That should not remain too much of a problem. Once the contract is officially signed you will have guards protecting you that you can trust more than to just line their own pockets." The High Priestess explained as her disdain for mercenaries became apparent.
Jace continued to survey the area. The people were holding up posters and were yelling questions. Some of the posters were in a broken form of the Victorium language. It would seem that in preparation for the Victorium, the princess released information about them. It was entertaining to see some of the signs with almost nonsensical writing on them.
The path they were using had a number of two story buildings. But there were also intersections and taller buildings which is what Jace was beginning to have a bad feeling about. They would be perfect sniping nests. While someone could perform an ambush from the perfect blindspot from one of these intersections as well. He would have preferred that they speed up this ride but he had a feeling they were more than likely only risking the princesses life in this situation.
"That is not what I am worried about." The princess responded under her breath, clearly taken aback by the High Priestesses hostility towards mercenaries. But while the princess was taken aback, Astella had only silently chuckled. The Princess continued her explanation, "I am worried the assassins my brother and the Archduke have sent are hedging their bets to attack all at once when we get to the building where the negotiations are taking place."
"Interesting... Why do you think it is both your brother and the Archduke?" The High Priestess asked as she gave a few waves of her hand.
"Because, the reports out of the Vexical Prime say my younger brother is dead. At the hands of my psychotic older brother no doubt. Then there is the Tyranus Society that they were running together. Who else besides them, who want to get their hands on being legitimate holders of the Vexical Empire would send assassins." The princess answered in a hushed voice.
"Hmm..." The High Priestess glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "He was right. The Princess has woefully out of date information." That received a surprised look from the Princess even if Jace could not see it from his angle. The High Priestess expanded on what she was talking about a moment later. "Your younger brother is not dead. Spectre Jace and Cerberus Squad successfully extracted him from the planet prior for the multi-national blockade. Director Fenrir of the Vexical’s Military Intelligence and Logistics Division is now keeping him close to her at all times."
The Princess was stunned for a moment before becoming visibly relieved. "Thank you, I am glad I was wrong about that." She then thought of something. "What about my brother and the Archduke?"
"The Archduke has defected to the Crystoph Federation." The High Priestess declared as waved at the crowds. "He betrayed the prince or rather attempted to betray the prince. But his gambit failed and the Prince fled with records of both the Vexical Imperial family records and the Hex Imperial family records."
"I am sure that is not all of it, but I assume that is all I am getting?" The Princess asked with a mumble.
"Yes it is, I was actually wondering if you might know why he would take both historical records. The Vexical one makes some sense. He wanted to make sure he was the last person with the Vexical bloodline. But him taking the Hex Imperial records book does not make sense." The High Priestess pointed out, leaving the request for information in the air.
"Hmm... I was not privy to the Archduke and Prince’s conversations. But I do remember when I was younger and my grandfather was still alive he would often tell us stories." The Princess began. "One of those stories was about how the Hex bloodline was the keeper of the nanobots. How they were the first humans to discover them and the most compatible with the system. Then there is THE story, the one that really had an impact on him."
This information was keeping his attention quite a bit. But he was still able to spot the reflection of a sniper’s scope in the distance. He quickly calculated the trajectory and then got a message from Nila informing him that she spotted a sniper on her side as well.
"Apparently the the first Hex discovered the nanomachines on-"
Bang! Ting! Whoosh! Ting!
Jace suddenly reached his hand out into the air quickly breaking a sound barrier causing a gunshot-like sound to ring out. Just barely covering up the rifle sound that arrived a second earlier. The others aside from Nila ducked for cover. While Astella actually pulled the princess down into cover.
He held the bullet in one of his hands while the other gripped his rifle. He held it to the side as turned his hand and dropped the bullet causing it to drop onto the ground. While he looked directly toward the sniper.
Earlier at the same time that he caught the bullet, he saw Nila draw and slash her sword through the bullet coming from her side. That one was aimed at the High Priestess. She was already drawing her revolver to no doubt shoot back.