"Regardless of whatever happened to the elders over that 20.000 year timeframe since they arrived in this plane of existence, they somehow came into contact with magic before mastering it to a degree not seen anywhere in this world, then some sort of bio or technological disaster led them to take their current form, if they gained their disdain for all other life at that point or had it from the start is beside the point. All that matters is how we combat those creatures."Taking a moment to make that statement stick, Dax was about to continue on to the main point when he was interrupted by another party.
"So we"re all going to combat them? Why the f.u.c.k would we do that, it was you who brought them here with your illegal invasion of my country!"
Breathing a quiet sigh and quelling his mounting annoyance Dax took a glance at the overweight representative which shouted at him.
(The so called remnants of the empire?... Well, they were going to cause trouble at some point so they might as well do it now.)
Among the countless refugees of the imperial capital were a surprising amount of former n.o.bles from the empire, after settling in the new city they had started chattering political power through the use of their own personal soldiers and wealth, somehow gaining momentum to the point that they had gained a seat at today"s summit. Basically they were a collection of has been"s with the organizational structure of a syndicate who want to return to their days of glory where they overtaxed their subjects and spent all their days in needless surplus decadence while acting like every one of their problems was the fault of someone else. While Dax had been too busy to deal with them until now, this was actually a good time to crush them and when he realized that the qiton in question started typing away at the terminal in front of him while the n.o.ble continued shouting accusations at Dax mixed with his own delirious accusations.
"Instead of talking about those stupid creatures who you made up to squeeze tax out of us, we should instead be talking about compensation!"
Continuing to shout with an entirely red face, the overweight n.o.ble started addressing the other parties present like he was suddenly running the show.
"When this demonkin cur illegally invaded my country he raided it too, stealing coin and killing soldiers as he pleased! As the representative of the remaining empire n.o.bility, I demand immediate compensation for such actions which were a direct breach of every single law regarding war in the imperial high law!"
Finis.h.i.+ng up his delirious speech the n.o.ble noticed that the entire room had fallen silent as their attention gathered on Dax, seeing that as an agreement to his demands the n.o.ble was about to continue when Dax spoke up.
"Mr Fedeson, you and your a.s.sociates have been found in breach of Kingdom law and thus dismissed from this summit and banished from the city, effective immediately."
"Wha!-"
Before the n.o.ble could defend himself Dax brought up new information on the holograms, showing evidence of illegal slave trading as well as bribery and running multiple protection rackets.
"I was just informed that the local security forces have finished up investigating you, finding unredeemable evidence of running a ring of organized crime. By a verdict of Kingdom law, you are no longer welcome here, leave now or you will be removed by force."
"Wow, Dax is really relentless as always~"
Letting out a quiet laugh as she observed what could only be described as a public execution, Lux went over the numerous files Dax had pulled up, finding that about half of them had been forged. Still, Lux wasn"t about to point that out as the accused and his a.s.sociates were all sc.u.mbags in the truest sense of the word, all Dax had done was add enough crimes on top of the existing ones to secure a unilateral banishment without the need for a trail.
-
With that brief distraction dealt with, Dax continued the summit as he brought up the plans, deployment and marching orders for his proposed operation.
"As you can see this isn"t a plan to retake the imperial continent, but more of a first strike. The objectives of this operation are as follows: "
1. Secure viable countermeasures against the elders.
2. Securing intel from deep within the occupied territory to help with an eventual offensive
3. Prevent the elders from spreading beyond the imperial continent by establis.h.i.+ng a front line.
4. Secure live samples of the elder fungus spores and mushrooms for the development of countermeasures."
While the operation Dax presented was grand to an almost dizzying scale it could be broken down into several parts.
The first part was a ma.s.sive offensive operation on the entire imperial continent with about 2 trillion drones which were supported by around 2 million "live" troops, the operation was meant to establish an eventual frontline with supply routes and staging points while also drawing out the elders who lacked in numbers and distract them while the second and third part of the operation could take place. The second part of the operation was for a small team to slip through the lines and investigate deep within the imperial capital, the reason being that the elders had shot down all orbital a.s.sets and left Dax and his allies blind to the situation inland. The third and arguably most tricky part of the operation was a two p.r.o.nged raid, the first of which was on the lost sanctuary on the moon to hopefully disable the gateway located there and obtain the mana generating device which Dax had failed to bring back with him the first time he went there. The second raid was on a location identified from the hidden archives in the sanctuaries, apparently, there was some sort of facility which had to do with the elders deep underwater near the coast on the southern coast of the imperial capital, inside the elder"s area of influence.
Using about half an hour to go over the fine details and caveats of the operation, the various powers started asking Dax closer question, first of them to ask was Eos, the leader of the 22nd sanctuary.
"How long is the encirclement of the imperial continent supposed to go on for?"
"Ideally just under a month, but it"ll have to last until effective countermeasures to the elders are ready. Due to that, I"ve allocated about 2 trillion more drones and their support equipment to act as backup."
Thinking over what Dax had told her for a few seconds Eos asked another question which was on everyone"s mind at the moment.
"As for the none drone troops, how exactly do you expect them to be able to distract the elders without just being slaughtered?"
"By utilizing newly developed equipment which has seen promise in testing."
Bringing up new information on the screen Dax showed off what Iris had made by combining magic and his own technology.
"The inventor calls them valkyrie suits, built on the base of a ma.s.s produced version of my own personal and Lux"s experimental modular reactive armour. Basically its armour which allows the user to fly, locate and engage hostiles over long distance, it is the ultimate hara.s.sment outfit."
"Okay, but how long will it take to train someone to use that? And what about the casualty rate?"
"training can be done virtually where the sense of time will be slowed down drastically, so just over a month for a soldier which already has some sort of training. As for the expected casualty rate, it depends on the length until effective countermeasures are ready…. It"ll be anywhere between 2 and 20%. Of course, if this mission fails and the elders invade the rest of this planet we"re looking at 100% casualties."
Even if everyone had an idea of the scale of the upcoming operation, the idea of 400.000 possible casualties was something no one enjoyed thinking about. On a slightly sombre note, another representative spoke up to increase morale.
"I, Zhao, leader of the Ta"ai clan volunteer to lead some of those soldiers where the fighting is the fiercest!"
"As do I, Girshu. Moreover, we pledge 200,000 elite troops for the frontline. Use us however you want."
With the strongest known clan of dragonkin personally offering themselves as well as the elite troops, they had started training after they left the empire pledging themselves to the fight the rest of the 2 million troops was quickly delegated, among them were a surprising amount of angels from both the 22nd and the 14th sanctuary.
With the matter of the largest part of the operation settled, Dax s.h.i.+fted his attention to the other parts.
"Then we"ll decide on the recon force. To lead them I would like to nominate Terra, my student who personally volunteered for the job, following her should be an elite force prepared to die as the casualty rate will most likely be above 50%"
"In that case pick me! It seems like a worthwhile mission!~"
Speaking up for the first time she had placed her legs on top of her table with a bored expression on her face, Hemera which was part of the 14th sanctuary"s council spoke up with a happy smile on her face.
"In that case, I"ll go too, somebody needs to keep an eye on this battle maniac."
With the other present representative of the 14th sanctuary council speaking up in a similarly excited tone, the rest of the team was quickly filled with other angels and a few hardened veterans from the Northern republic.
"Then as the second part of the operation now has personally allocated I"ll announce the personal allocated to the third part. The underwater expedition/raid will be lead by Lux, followed by Lilly, Mare, Alice and Eos. The luna raid will be lead by me personally, with Solaris, Ifrit and Lia as the active combat members and Iris as well as the two homunculus twins Ying and Ling as a support staff that will immediately start a.n.a.lyzing any finds on the way back home."
With the conclusion of the a.s.signment of personal to the different forces and reserves, the date for the operation was also quickly settled before the summit reached its end.