"that"s one more! ICI how many left!?"[DETECTING 439 ADDITIONAL CONTACTS]
"f.u.c.k ME!"
how many days had he been fighting? Dax had been tempted to ask ICI a thousand times by now, but he never did ask, because he that knew he wouldn"t like the answer. how long time had pa.s.sed he wondered, while crus.h.i.+ng the throat of a toll with a well placed kick.
"UUURRRA"
"shut up! f.u.c.k why didn"t it die the first time, am i getting tired?"
seeing that his kick was ineffective on the troll, Dax instead ripped its throat with his hand in annoyance
[LIKELY HYPOTHESIS: IT HAS BE-]
"i don"t want to know! it"s gonna make me even more p.i.s.sed if you tell me!"
[INPUT CONFIRMED. NEXT CONTACT CLOSING IN]
when Dax had opened his eyes he didn"t find himself inside the poorly metal cage at the outer gate of Black Hollow as he had hoped, but in a sea of fire. before he could get his bearings ICI had warned him about a large amount of mana in the air, and a immense explosion had followed, completely obliterating the giant wall behind him and opening it to a h.o.a.rd of monsters. Dax felt like that had been weeks ago, he had lost track of how many times the white moon in the sky had pa.s.sed over him already, but one thing hasn"t changed in all that time: the monsters never stopped coming.
"f.u.c.k OFF!"
as the next h.o.a.rd of monsters rushed at him, Dax picked up a dead guards spear and threw it at the biggest troll in the group, the spear instantly found its target, burying itself in the skull of the troll with a wet sound. the small amount of guards that had survived the sudden h.e.l.lfire had been some of the fist to fall in the following battle, either to the trolls or by trying to flee into the h.e.l.lfire that had reaped most of the city in moments. the first few hours had been the most mentally draining, screams of arguably unlucky survivors could be heard from time to time and the hardest ones on Dax"s mind had been the close ones, even knowing that they couldn"t be saved while the monsters where endlessly pus.h.i.+ng forward. a few times he had tried to save some by thinning out the h.o.a.rd rus.h.i.+ng in the broken wall with pistol fire and tried to pull survivors out of the h.e.l.lish fire, but all attempts had failed as there were no one to cover him as he made the rescue. the multiple unsuccessful rescue attempts had however depleted his ammunition, and made the following weeks of endless conflict all the more difficult, a few times when he had pulled back into the rubble of Black Hollow to rest monsters had swarmed him from out of nowhere, succeeding in causing a small amount of damage on Dax. the small amount of damage had mounted over the seemingly endless days and about a week ago the damage to his overall body had caused Dax to make an increasing amount of non lethal punches and kicks, tiring him out even more. his first fatal flaw was against a particular deformed troll, its head had been about one and a half times bigger than the standard troll he had become extremely well acquainted with over the last few weeks and its arms and legs had also been miss matched, probably because of significant inbreeding or some sort of disease. Dax had not given the particular specimen a lot of attention, only kicking it in the throat and destroying its windpipe like he had done endless times to its kin. it was only when a rare and skilled troll wielding a greatsword had appeared that his earlier mistake became apparent, the troll with the greatsword had posed a challenge and Dax had decided to wait and tire it out by staying near the end of its sword reach and pulling back slowly, as luck would have it Dax reatreated near the apparently not so dead deformed troll, and when he had come to close the misshapen troll had leaped forward and bit his leg, allowing the sword wielding troll to get a hit in that destroyed his cybernetic arm. the sword had hit Dax right on his elbow joint, shattering the cybernetic nerves and denting the joint making it useless, in a fit of rage Dax had shattered the rest of his elbow joint himself and used his now detached cybernetic forearm as a javelin, burying it in the head of the sword wielding troll before completely shattering the deformed trolls head with his free foot in a complete case of overkill while spewing a creative range of profanities. losing a limb had become a major disadvantage in combat and Dax had sustained severe injuries, enough to make his auto heal useless, leading to his present desperate situation.
"Yeah how do you like that b.i.t.c.h!"
stabbing a literal b.i.+.c.h (female wolf) in the neck with a looted sword and killing it he then kicked the wolf corpse while pulling out the sword, the corpse hit a troll in the face, achieving only to p.i.s.s it of more than it already was.
"UUURRRAAG!!"
"yeah d.i.c.k move i know, here accept my apology!"
tossing his increasingly dull sword at the troll, and hitting it in the throat, Dax scanned the corpse filled battlefield for a new weapon
"this seems nostalgic somehow…"
after losing his cybernetic arm an unknown amounts of days ago, Dax started to remember bits and pieces of his lost memory, battlefields filled with debris soaked in mud, blood and corpses - cybernetic and organic. in the mommories Dax killed, he killed in creative ways, in brutal ways and in the ways he had been trained. when his rifle had been depleted he used it as a bat, and when that broke he used his pistol, and then his knife, and then his fists. as his fist(s) and uniform became increasingly blood and mud soaked he started to feel more and more at home, at ease and he started to revel in it he felt a home on the battlefield more so than when he was off duty and he still did even when surrounded by monsters.
"i f.u.c.king love war!"
[BROKEN MEMORY SEGMENTS RECOVERED. SUSPENDING FAIL STATE SIMULATION.
FINAL SCORE:
6048 HOURS ELAPSED
785.412 PERFECT KILLS CONFIRMED
528 IMPERFECT KILLS CONFIRMED
99.9998% ACCURACY
FINAL GRADE: C]
"ARE YOU f.u.c.kING KIDDING ME!"
finding himself in a completely white room with no walls floor or ceiling, Dax was apparently pretty d.a.m.n upset.
[A ENDLESS SIMULATION WITH NO WIN CONDITION OR ICI a.s.sISTANCE WAS NECESSARY TO RECOVER LOST MEM-]
"yeah yeah i know that. but a C rating? really?"
[RATINGS ARE FINAL. GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK COMMANDER, OR AT LEAST PART OF YOU.]
"nice to meet you again ICI, suspend animation."
as Dax once again opened his eyes he found himself in the same fragile metal cage he Incarcerated himself in. it seemed to be morning and lots of people were going about their daily life, the people of Black Hollow wore simple leather and cloth clothing with simple colors, or at least the ones having business near the outer wall. they were mostly humans but a few had longer ears or animal like ears and higher bone density, according to ICI that Dax had felt was even more a part of him. the guards didn"t appear to want to try and kill him anymore, in fact they didn"t even seem to mind his entire existence, and Dax wondered if he could just open the cage and walk out.
"haloo"
well someone did mind him, standing in front of the cage Dax was in stod a child about 4 years old. she wore a simple one piece dress and her short white hair and large green eyes gave her a overall innocent look
"hi, can i help you with anything?"
"are you a demonkin?"
"no i"m a qiton"
"what"s a qyiton?"
"a kind of knights of honor and justice"
"WOOW! but what is that?"
"we stop evil people and help the weak"
"that"s amazing! you"re just like my dad!"
jumping around excitedly shouting "amazing" for a bit, attracting quite a bit of attention from the morning commuters, before stopping after a bit and staring at Dax with big and curious eyes
"but then why are you in there?"
"because some people are afraid of me, so i locked myself in here so they feel safe"
"afraid? why?"
"are you not afraid of me?"
"nooope! my mom told me not to fear people because they are different"
"well ain"t you just a whole bundle of joy and innocence, can i pat your head?"
"um! sure!"
"ara! so that were you went Claire. oh so you are awake now mister demonkin"
standing behind the child was a woman about 30 years old with the same hair and eye color as her.
"she"s lovely and she has your eyes, how old is she?"
"Claire is 4 she"s gonna be 5 next spring"
"you don"t seem afraid of me either"
"i grew up in a demonkin trade city so i"m used to your kind, most are harmless, like you. my husband saw how you locked yourself in that cage and started to meditate 2 days ago"
"that was 2 days ago?"
"yeah it was, i saw you when i walked by yesterday morning about 6 guards was trying to stab you to death with spears but you didn"t seem to mind, when i came by in the evening the guards seem like they were a bit exhausted, my husband told me later the evening that they spent most of the day trying to kill you without eff.e.c.kt, that was hilarious"
"is that so? can i ask something else?"
"yes what is it?"
"can i please pat the head of this lovely and adorable creature that is your daughter?"
"ara, please go right ahead"
----
"good news Alice, i finally got permission from the lord to let Dax out, let"s go pick him up"
"that"s great! let"s go"
Russell and Alice made there way from the the ranger barracks behind the inner wall through the one of the larger markes in Black Hollow filled with fruits, vegetables and meats from farms around the city.
"that reminds me, i haven"t ever seen Dax eat, i wonder if he even eats?"
"well even if he"s immortal as you say he at least have to eat at some point so let"s get him some good food later"
"look Russell i know that you want to play the long game by b.u.t.tering up to Dax, but please let me talk to him first and appolygize for having him put in a cage, then you can do whatever you want after"
as they arrived at the cages Alice and Russell saw a large mob of middle aged men standing around Dax"s cage, some were laughing, others just looked on silendly.
"HEY what are you people doing!?"
Alice quickly pushed her way past the mob but to her surprise she didn"t find Dax being swamd by guards or the like. but Dax playing with a little girl and a woman that looked like her mother laughing loudly, and when she looked back into the crowd she only saw warm and smiling faces of old men.
"Dax what are you doing?"
"entertaining the most adorable creature i have ever seen, what else does it look like? Clair how can you be this cute? it"s against the rules"
as Dax ruffled Claire"s hair he wore the same smile as the old men around him while Claire"s mother seemed like she couldn"t stop laughing, when Alice compared Dax"s and all the old men"s smile she started to believe that he was as old as he said.
"i"m sorry i had to come to this Dax, and i"m sorry it took so long for my superior convince the lord that you"re no theat so we can let you out"
"ah i don"t mind it. being in here gave me time to think, and then i meet Claire so it"s all good, besides if i wanted to leave i could have long ago"
as if demonstrating Dax bent one of the metal bars like it was made soft clay, coursing Russell standing in the background much surprise
"WOW Dax you"re strong! amazing!"
"not as amazing as you Claire, how are your cheeks so soft?"
"some weapon of ma.s.s destruction you are.. here let me unlock the cage"
Alice quickly unlocked the cage by pouring mana into the lock and let Dax out, to Claire"s confusion
"Dax, are you going?"
"yeah sadly, these people need to speak with me about something important, Alice can you entertain Claire for a bit? i need to talk with her mother real quick"
"who is that?"
"Claire this is Alice, she"s also a kind of knight of honor and justice, she"s also really strong like me, plus she"s almost as adorable as you so you should get along, okay?"
"WOOOW! Alice how strong are you!?"
"w-well i"m actually one of the strongest rangers in this city, but it"s not a big deal really but it"s true i"m stronger than-"
"miss can i talk with you for a second in private? it"s about Claire"
"sure, what is it?"
"-so i"m not really the strongest in this city but it"s pretty close i think"
"WOOOW! that amazing! Alice you"re awesome, just like Dax!"
"well i guess that"s true, aha hahahah"
"Alice would you snap out of it i"m done now"
"-ah i"m sorry"
"well your sense of pride is adorable so it"s fine"
"wh!"
while Alice"s face turned deep crimson, Dax went over to Russell to introduce himself
"i a.s.sume you"re Alice"s boss, nice to meet you my name is Dax"
"that"s right my name is Russell Williams i"m the Black Hollow Ranger"s Commanding officer"
both wearing smiles like seasoned politicians, Dax and Russell exchanged a handshake while evanuatening each other like veteran warriors.
"good to meet you Russell, can we move somewhere more private to talk?"
"sure let"s go back to my office, Alice come on stop blus.h.i.+ng and follow us"
"i-i"m not blus.h.i.+ng okay!"
"actually can we go to the top of this wall instead? i a.s.sume that"ll be private enough"
"yeah we can do that, but why?"
"i would like to get a overview of the city"
"Dax are you leaving?"
"yeah sorry but i"ll be back later to play, i already talked with your mom about it"
"promise?"
looking at Dax with big and slightly teary eyes Dax couldn"t refuse even if his life depended on it
"yeah i promise, on the honor of my clan i will return to play with you Claire"
"okay, see you later Dax"
Dax and Russell made there way up a nearby stairwell, followed by the still blus.h.i.+ng Alice and when they climbed the stairs they found themselves on top of the 50 meters tall wall overlooking most of the city. after Russell had cleared a segment of the wall of guards they had it to themselves.
"allow me to reintroduce myself. my name is Dax and i"m a qiton of the Alph4 clan witch i lead and the commanding general of the 125th combined ops...o...b..tal drop troops or "h.e.l.lwalkers" of the Galactic empire. about 94 of your years ago my s.h.i.+p suffered a ambush that caused a emergency jump that landed me near your world, what you have seen as a recent "starfall" was the debris of my s.h.i.+p making planetfall. i"m making contact with your country because i think that we both can benefit from mutual cooperation and mutual non aggression pact while i recover the main reactor and primary FTL drive unit of my derelict s.h.i.+p so i can leave this world and rejoin my own"
"mutual cooperation? what can you offer?"
"as i told Alice and Viktor a few days ago, extermination of any and all hostiles and medical or technological a.s.sistance, as long as my conditions are met"
as Dax mentioned conditions, Russell lost his smile
"what kind of conditions?"
"calm down, my only conditions is that any and all intact "orbs" that survived planetfall fall under the owners.h.i.+p of the galactic empire and that i reserve right to terminate the non aggression pact if i find any breaches of the treatment of any and all intelligent species per the Avoxaian treaty"
"i"m sorry what? i don"t know that treaty "
"if i find that your country or representatives in any way discriminate and/or purge sentient species because of racial or religious bias i reserve the right to sterilize you from orbit"
"wait what did you say, i didn"t understand that last part?"
"if i find that your county commit genocide or discriminate against any race i won"t cooperate and we may become enemies"
"i find that fair, but it"s not my job to decide, so i will send it up the food chain"
"that"s all i could hope for, nice doing business with you Russell"
"likewise, now are you gonna tell me the real reason you wanted to come up here?"
"yeah, i want to scan for other orbs that might have landed nearby, can i?"
"sure go ahead"
"great, ICI give me 100% physical with no limiters and prepare for a long range scan"
[AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED]
"that"s not good, Russell move back!"
"registration 044587356420, and yeah Russell, you might want to move back"
[CONFIRMED. REMOVING ALL PHYSICAL LIMITERS, COMMANDER DAX NOW OPERATING AT FULL STRENGTH]
"it is great to be back, now let"s do some light warm up"
jumping a bit in place with almost no effort, Dax made a few jabs and kicks in the air in front of him that made small sonic booms to the great surprise of Russell
"well i"ll be right back, ICI status?"
[READY FOR LONG DISTANCE SCAN]
"great, let"s go"
squatting down Dax took a deep breath and jumped, leaving a small crater in his wake
"what the h.e.l.l is that creature? i"m so glad you told us not to fight him Alice"
"yeah he really is a monster, when he wiped the floor with me and Viktor earlier he was holding back greatly"
"i would be amazing if we could get him to help us"
about 2 minutes later Dax landed outside the wall, creating a large cloud of dust and dirt, before jumping back up to Russell and Alice.
"i found 2 orbs nearby, one about 25 kilometers away and the other about 248 kilometers away, if you a.s.sist me in recovering them i will owe you a personal favor Russell"