"So, how are we doing?""We"re at 97%, it"s time to make an ultimatum."
Overseeing a ma.s.sive new s.h.i.+pment of raw compounds, Lux and Dax were discussing their next move and how it would come to influence the next steps of the pipeline operation that had been in the works for a few months.
"... Are you really sure you want to do that Dax? It could blow this thing open before we exploit it."
While Dax wanted to do things by the book, Lux felt that such considerations shouldn"t be taken against a foe that had ignored all attempts at diplomatic talks so far and doing so might have a chance of swaying the conflict away from their advantage.
"That would be a breach of the operational doctrine."
"And running a drug operation with the intent of destabilizing country isn"t? Since we"ve come to this world you"ve been holding back way too much."
But doing what he wanted and what he was allowed to do wasn"t necessarily the same thing, warfare was, has always been a messy thing by nature, as such operational doctrine had to be followed, the destructive capabilities of intelligent life had to be limited or unnecessary destruction would only follow.
"You bring up a very valid point, then do you want to take over command?"
"That"s not what I said, please don"t twist my words. Please act like an adult for once and give me a straight answer."
Being forced to take the entire situation a bit more seriously, Dax"s smile completely disappeared as he sat down on the ground and mad Lux do the same.
"Then how would you prevent their forces form organizing before we reach the capital?"
"With a preemptive strike."
"That would just make them all the more tenacious, attacking their forces out of nowhere would not be a good idea."
"I"m not talking about an all out attack, what if we just target key organizational area"s?"
"Do you want to take out their infrastructure? When the average soldier can clear debris as well as a powered exoskeleton?"
"I"m not talking about infrastructure, what about the chain of command itself? Not the very top but what about middle management?"
"... That"s evil."
"Why thank you~ Then what about it? If we step up deployment by a few days and utilize precision orbital artillery to take out sector 4-91 and the other hotspot-"
"They"ve gone off into their own little world again…"
"Yeah, I guess we"re not doing anything for the rest of the day."
Meanwhile, Alice and Terra found themselves at a loss, when Dax and Lux started talking like that it often meant that normal plans would be canceled.
"Then give me a full outline later over secure comms, I"ll work everything within place under the a.s.sumption that we"re code yellow as of this moment."
But this time, it seemed like that wasn"t the case.
"Terra and Alice with me, we"re leaving the Empire now."
"Eh?"
"Wait, what"s happening?"
"We"re phase line yellow."
With some confusion, Terra and Alice were dragged behind Dax and quickly left the Empire to return to Dax"s ma.s.sive underground base with Lilly in tow.
-
[CALLOUT FROM COMMAND: PHASE LINE YELLOW.]
With a global and highly encrypted message going out to all a.s.sets the mood somewhat changed, even within the Empire. Although nothing much had really happened it felt like there was something was wrong, something which was noticed by the keener commanders within the Empire"s various military branches and almost without exception they started slowly mobilizing, even if it was going against the orders of their superiors. Among some of those commanders was the head of the Empire"s west navy situated on the edge of the imperial continent facing towards the great sea and the Empire"s greatest enemy, the Kingdom, and their new ally.
"How is the sea doing?"
Sitting behind a ma.s.sive pile of paperwork that he had been working with the entire night, fleet admiral Knox warmly welcomed his morning report, as it would him a chance to escape the paperwork.
"It"s calm, way too calm actually."
"... Please explain that in more details lieutenant."
Feeling that there was more to the lieutenant"s words, admiral Knox looked up from his pile of doc.u.ments for the first time.
"Sir, of the usual 40 night patrols, only 3 of them reported having encountered monsters."
"That is way less than usual, even doing a new moon we wouldn"t see this few… Let"s go down to the docks lieutenant."
[CALLOUT FROM COMMAND: PHASE LINE YELLOW-BRAVO.]
"W-what did you just say, boss?"
"I said use this tool to sort out all the counterfeit coins from your vault and throw them away, preferably in the desert somewhere, after that, you two siblings will be on your own again."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Empire, Mirza and her sister Sami were dealing with some confusion of their own.
"What do you mean "on your own"? Boss."
"It"s exactly what I say. I and Dax along with our a.s.sociates and a.s.sets will be pulling out of this area after you"ve done this last thing for us. Please return to being normal lowlifes after that, or turn over a leaf and do something legit, I don"t care."
"But boss, wh"
Seeing that the two siblings didn"t listen to what she was saying, Lux got really tired of what they were saying.
"Do as I f.u.c.king say."
""Y-yes boss!""
As Sami had kept careful track of her organization"s finances finding and isolating the counterfeit currency was a relatively easy task, after which the gold was loaded onto carriages and driven out into the desert under the moonlight with the help of only a few of their trusted subordinates.
"Okay, now dump it here."
"Wh-"
"I"m doing you a f.u.c.king favor, do it."
Still not open to suggestions, Lux cracked her knuckles as she stared down the goon who refused her order while releasing bloodl.u.s.t.
"I"m plenty to kill every single one of you here with my bare hands, and right now I really want to. Don"t tempt me and do what I f.u.c.king say."
[CALLOUT FROM COMMAND: PHASE LINE YELLOW-DELTA.]
"S-sir is it really a good idea to just leave your post like that?"
"Yeah it is, the benefit of being the fleet admiral is that I can do whatever I want."
Walking along a busy harbor with his lieutenant in tow, admiral Knox inspected the fast attack boats equipped with mana powered cannons. Reaching one of the boats that had been out for patrol doing the night, admiral Knox was greeted by a salute from a very surprised captain.
"Admiral Knox sir! W-what are you doing here this morning?"
"I wanted to go take a look at things, how have things been doing the patrol?"
"Sir! It was really quiet, way too quiet in fact."
"You think so too, then what about the monsters?"
"Sir, we didn"t meet any."
Hearing the same thing he had from the lieutenant, admiral Knox closed his eyes as he started thinking.
"That really is strange, don"t you think so lad?"
"Sir, I also think it"s extremely strange… Speaking of strange, I"ve heard about some fishers have been getting strange catches this morning too."
"Both of you follow me now."
Setting off at quite a quick pace, the two sailors had no choice but to follow their admiral as he headed to the civilian docks and the fishermen.
[CALLOUT FROM COMMAND: PHASE LINE RED.]
"T-that sure is a lot of gold…"
Looking at the mountain of gold in front of them, some of the goons struggled to contain their own greed as they looked at the gleaming mountain of wealth.
"Sami, how much coins is that?"
"About half a million."
"Are you sure it"s all the money we supplied you with, the one you have been lending out and using to pay people for the distributing of the drugs?"
"That"s correct boss."
"And you"re not hiding any counterfeit a.s.sets somewhere?"
Increasing her bloodl.u.s.t as she asked that question, Lux walked a single step closer to Sami who stepped back out of fear in response.
"I-it is all of it, I swear."
"Good, then let me show you something cool~"
[CALLOUT FROM COMMAND: PHASE LINE BLACK.]
"W-what in the world is that?"
"Today"s catch."
Standing out on the civilian docks, admiral Knox could hardly believe what he was seeing. In most of the trawl nets weren"t filled with fresh catches, but only sc.r.a.ps of dead monsters that had been ripped to pieces.
"alert the fleet! We"re under attack, deploy everything!"
[CALLOUT FROM COMMAND: COMMENCING OPERATION.]
As admiral Knox was busy panicking while he realized he was being taken with his pants down, precision orbital artillery rained down from the sky and annihilated the admiral himself, his subordinates and the fleet he was so proud of in an instant, without inflicting a single civilian casualty.
"W-what the h.e.l.l is happening."
Looking at what had until a few seconds ago been a large pile of gold coins, Mirza, Sami or any of their goons understood what was going on.
"It really is quite simple, it"s burning with enough heat to melt most things nearby, including other gold it would be stored together with. Precisely as it was designed to do."
"W-why?"
"Because the coin you have been injecting into the Empire"s economy will have found its way to various banks and other piles of wealth at this point. While it won"t wipe out everything, it will destroy about 60% of the stored cash within the Empire which will create an economic crisis unlike anything this world has ever seen. While the Empire struggles with that they will face the largest invasion force they have ever seen which will attack from land, sea, air, and s.p.a.ce at the same time."
While speaking multiple heavy a.s.sault transports broke through the sound barrier as they crashed into the desert sand behind her, bringing all the equipment Lux would need to fight a land war from her current position all the way to the Imperial capital.
"You people are no longer needed, please use the supplies that will be provided to you to survive until this war is over, it won"t be that long. The 125th h.e.l.lwalkers thanks all of you for your service."