"Aaa, sweat earth, how I have missed you!"Immediately after exiting the G05E Juggernaut Lia laid down flat on the ground right outside Dax"s compound in Kingstead, it seemed like she didn"t like travelling in s.p.a.ce that much. Dax how was just about to ask her to help with something held his words as a wry smile formed on his face instead.
(I guess I"ll get the two twins and Iris to help me with the mana generator then.)
Getting back into the Juggernaut Dax found Iris and the two homunculus twins, Ling and Ying still standing over the mana generator, discussing different theories to its method of operation while deciphering the different rune formations visible on the outside of it.
"Come on you three, we need to move that to the lab."
"Can"t we just stay here and look at it?"
"We"re getting close to grasping something."
"Nope, the Jug needs be repaired before going back on high alert. So far this s.h.i.+p is the only effective weapon against the elders."
As a series of drones entered the Jug behind him with a pallet for transporting the generator Iris realized she couldn"t keep dragging things out and thus reluctantly stepped away from her newest pa.s.sion project. After loading up the generator Dax quickly fetched Solaris who had fallen asleep due to exhaustion Carrying with him in a princess carry.
With the Juggernaut switching to autopilot, it gently lifted off and left for repairs while Dax walked with Iris, Ling and Ying, making sure that they didn"t interrupt the drones tasked with transporting the mana generator.
(Hmm?)
Looking up towards the sky Dax felt there was something wrong all of a sudden, even if he couldn"t put his finger on exactly what it was. With his gut continuing to warn him that there was something wrong the drones transporting the generator eventually came to halt before spreading out on the empty landing field, raising their weapons.
"Dax? What"s wrong?"
With the transport halting, Iris turned towards Dax to find out what was going on, seeing that he was tense for some reason she started getting worried.
"I don"t know, stay put right there until I find out."
Switching Solaris over to one hand Dax connected to the cities ICI network while using his free hand to take out his pistol, scanning the skyline all the while.
(Is it really nothing?... No, here it comes!)
Out of nowhere, a CAS-7A flew right over Dax and the other"s heads, landing about 10 metres away from them while blocking the way to the lab.
"Dax, what was that for!?"
Being awoken by the sound of the CAS-7A"s engines, Solaris initially believed it was another one of his pranks. Meanwhile, Dax was busy scanning his vast drone network, trying to find out which one of his CAS-7A had just landed in front of him, but nothing came up.
"Code red, unknown contacts inside the wire, mobilize the garrison and warm up the 540 mills"
[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, CODE RED ESTABLISHED, AREA LOCKDOWN NOW IN EFFECT, NOW SCRAMBLING ALL DEFENSIVE UNITS, REQUESTING RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FROM COMMAND.]
"W-what is happening Dax?"
"... That craft not one of mine, I have no idea where it came from. ICI, fire on my mark, triggers tight. Give them a warning."
[ICI ADDRESSING ALL UNKNOWN UNITS IN THE AREA: POWER DOWN YOUR ENGINES AND EXIT THE CRAFT, FAILURE TO DO SO WILL LEAD TO EUTHANIZATION.]
"Get behind me, all of you!"
Setting down Solaris Dax pointed his pistol at the unknown craft which had just breached his restricted area without him knowing, at the same time the drones which had been transporting the mana generator formed a firing line on both sides of Dax. With no response from the unknown craft, Dax was about to open fire on it, that is until something extremely strange happened. Suddenly it was like everything turned quiet, while Solaris and the homunculus twins didn"t seem to know what was going on, Iris realized what was happening a few seconds before the first drone fell over.
In just a split second, Dax"s entire ICI network had been hacked and taken over, evident by the fact that the 540 mill railgun turrets now pointed at him.
"Oh f.u.c.k me… If something horrible is about to happen to me I want you to know that I"ll be okay Solaris, don"t interfere."
Figuring something awful was about to happen to him, Dax lowered his pistol as the ramp of the strange CAS-7A lookalike s.h.i.+p opened up, revealing 3 figures clad in strange armour.
"Dax? What"s happening?"
"I"ll tell you later if I"m able to, just don"t interfere."
Leaving the confused Solaris behind Dax embraced his fate and walked up to the transport before greeting the people who had come to collect him.
"It has been a while, thanks for making the journey all the way here."
Greeting the visitors without any particular expression on his face, Dax was meet with silence. Of course, that silence was due to the way Dax had changed without himself knowing it since he had been marooned on this world, it simply left Ra and Mu at a loss as to what to do.
"You are Dax, right?"
Before Mu knew what she was doing, she had spoken those words. Even if she felt it was something rude to say the person standing in front of her was simply nothing like the family member who had gone missing all those years ago. The Dax she knew had and was always a reckless workaholic with no regard for his own survival seemingly stuck in a constant state of heightened alert like he was always at war. It seemed that whatever had happened while Mu had not been able to look over him he had finally changed and that change was simply too hard for her to just believe outright, the anger and rage she held against him out of worry for his reckless way of living simply disappeared then and there.
Hearing the confusion in Mu"s voice Dax put on a rea.s.suring smile as he walked up to her, patting her head.
"Of course it"s me, silly. It has been a while- h.e.l.lo Ra, it has been a while. I see that new armour of yours has a considerable power a.s.sist function."
Forced to cut his words short mid sentence, Dax greeted to older of the Avoaxian sisters who had just punched him in the stomach with a considerable amount of strength, cracking a few of his ribs.
"That"s for worrying us so much, you absolute idiot!"
"Yeah, I"m sorry about all this, thanks for coming all the way here to find me."
-
"Seeing that everyone isn"t here at the moment I"ll keep the introductions short. This here is Ra and Mu, my two reliable sisters, the one acting as their guard every time they leave the galactic empire is Philippa, a qiton also belonging to the 125th and the closest I have to a childhood friend."
After dealing with the initial confusion and establis.h.i.+ng a common language base Dax moved everyone inside a meeting room to introduce everyone to each other.
"h.e.l.lo, people~ I used to beat up Dax when we were kids~"
Introducing herself with a casual wave while lying about the result of the numerous spars she had with Dax when they were younger, Phillipa managed to scare the other side with her easy going introduction as she never really bothered to suppress the ever present blood l.u.s.t she carried as a qiton.
"Greetings, my name is Mu, I"m Ra"s younger sister and the co founder of Lazarus, we"re the people who developed most of the technology Dax uses."
"h.e.l.lo, I"m Ra, the other part of Lazarus. Nice to meet all of you."
While Mu"s self introduction was overflowing with friendliness and warmth, Ra"s greeting couldn"t have been any colder, leading her younger sister to cover for her before she got a bad reputation.
"Please don"t mind Ra, she"s just a bit shy around strangers."
"I AM NOT!"
With a wry smile on his face, Dax decided not to comment on Ra"s shyness, after all, he still wanted to keep living.
"Then on this side, we have some of the people I"ve met after standing here, Solaris would you like to introduce yourself?"
Picking Solaris at random Dax expected her to be her usual overconfident self, but for some reason, Solaris seemed extra nervous about that after Dax had introduced Ra, Mu and Phillipa.
"Erm… M-my name is- No, that"s not right… Give me a moment."
Packing herself up in her wings Solaris shut herself off from her surroundings, leading Dax to initially skip her as he went on to Iris.
"h.e.l.lo."
"We"re called Iris."
"But enough about that, what"s that armour made of?"
"It looks like some sort of liquid."
Iris did somehow better than the half pigeon that was currently muttering all sorts of things incoherently under her wings, but as soon as she noticed the armour Dax"s visitors was wearing she got somewhat sidetracked. Having bombarded Ra and Mu with questions out of nowhere, Ra backed off as she didn"t know how to deal with children, meanwhile Mu welcomed the questions and started casually leaking cla.s.sified information.
"It isn"t a liquid, although it can act like that for the purposes of shock absorption and structural reconfiguration, just like this."
Sending a single command through her neural uplink, Mu"s smooth looking armour vibrated in a strange manner before the helmet divided itself into small hexagonal segments which folded in on themselves before getting absorbed by the rest of her armour, revealing her green hair and large blue eyes which looked at Iris with great interest.
"That"s really cool."
"Can we please get a chance to study it?"
"Sure Iris, I"ll give a short lecture if that"s what you want~ But let"s let the others introduce themselves before we get to that."
"All that can wait for later, that technology is truly fascinating."
"Yeah, it really is, please tell us all about it!"
However, before Mu could reorient the conversation back to Dax she was ambushed by the two homunculus twins, it seemed they had planned on listening in on her lecture and the thought of having that delayed was simply too much for them.
"Dax, a little help?"
Looking to Dax for help in peeling the two women off her, Mu instead left out to dry.
"Sorry, that"s just how the two of them are, they were created to a.n.a.lyse things…"
"Meaning?"
Sensing a deeper meaning behind those words, Mu"s happy expression disappeared.
"Knowledge is like hard drugs for them, there is nothing I can do about it, it"s just how the two of them were wired by that twisted creator of theirs."
"So they"re like us?"
Seeing past the more ominous parts of Dax"s explanation, Mu immediately equated the two homunculus twins to herself and Dax, artificial creations made with a specific purpose in mind.
"Kind of yeah, or more like an earlier version made by more primitive technology. I saved those two when they were left to die by their creator before later naming them to Ying and Ling."
"That means two are family, I"ll tell you anything you want to know, but it has to wait until after this."
"Okay.."
"I guess that"s fine, as long as you promise!"
"I do, don"t worry."
While Iris, Ying, Ling and Mu had become friends it seemed like Solaris had finally come out of her sh.e.l.l. Standing up with a dignified expression on her face, the angel spread out her pure white wings and immediately stole the visitor"s attention from everything else that was going on.
"Ra, Mu and Phillipa, it is nice to meet all of you. My name is Solaris, an archangel from the 14th sanctuary… I am currently dating Dax."
Failing to remain dignified at the last part, Solaris" face bloomed entirely red as she squeezed the last part out, leading to a somewhat unnerving and complete silence in the room.
"Well isn"t she"s just adorable? Good job Dax~"
Still refusing to abide by social norms, Phillipa walked up to Dax with a knowing smile on her face and Dax in return said something the worst thing he could have said under the current circ.u.mstances.
"Yeah, she is~ Wait until you meet my other girlfriends."
As soon as those words left his mouth something happened to Ra and Mu. While Dax couldn"t see Ra"s expression he was pretty sure she had some kind of strange smile on her face, her eyes, however, were not smiling in the slightest. Mu"s expression was more telling, while it seemingly hadn"t changed, her eyes had suddenly gone cold while her aura had changed into something terrifying.
"... It was nice to know you, Dax."
Seeing what was coming, Phillipa turned serious for once and offered her prayers while Dax was dragged off for his execution.