[EXTREME MANA SIGNATURE DETECTED]"Go to alert state 1! And give me a position immediately."
At the base build around what remained of the second orb, Dax awoke of his meditation and sprang into action. Over the last 4 days Dax and the available 4 drones had completely broken down the orb and started to process it into base materials, with the help of 2 additional zero-g forges constructed form rare metals present in the orb. Therefore the "orb" was not so much a orb anymore, and more like a basecamp where the expected equipment of such status had been prepared. In the very center of camp were a dirt covered bunker, made of high tensile reinforced concrete made from a mix of metal slag from the orb refining and pulverised rock found in the surroundings. The bunkers main purpose was to house and protect a server cl.u.s.ter made from the last leftovers of the drop pod. The cl.u.s.ter was powered by a low output fusion reactor able to pump up and refine water into tritium from groundwater . The server cl.u.s.ter"s main purpose was to off load the processing load of Dax"s ICI and it ran everything in and around the base, from schematic work to guard supervision. placed around the base was 12 concrete pillars each 3 meter high topped improvised turrets, all armed with a gimpleing REX-334"s and was powered trough buried wires running to the main bunker, even ammunition could be transported from there through a buried pneumatic system. With protection of the base covered by the improvised turrets, and the server handling tasking of and manufacture of drones Dax had found himself quite free, and spent most of the day meditating, that is until ICI had warned him of a large scale mana signature. Instantly moving the base to highest alert state, manufacture of the 20 new REX-Delta 04 Cyclops" stopped as all non essential power was cut and the already constructed drones stopped construction work and gathered on Dax as he waited for a location of the treat.
[MANA SIGNATURE Pa.s.sED, EVENT OVER.]
"What the f.u.c.k?"
[MANA SIGNATURE APPERED TO BE A BURST.]
"And where did it come from?"
[SOME 70 KILOMETERS FROM BLACK HOLLOW.]
"WHA!- Say that first! Prepare all drones to move out NOW!"
Rus.h.i.+ng to his feet, Dax quickly went into the main bunker and graped a large reinforced weapon case, some 3 and a half meters long. Having grabbed the case, Dax also took a gauss rifle and quickly started running towards Black Hollow.
[SOURCE LOCATED BY COMSAT-1, DOWNLOADING RENDER.]
As ICI shared a satellite video live feed of the threat, Dax released all his limiters and rushed ahead.
[COMMANDER BACKING FORMATION.]
"Shut up and make them follow me!"
[NOT REC-]
"I DON"T f.u.c.kING CARE IF THEY BREAK! OVERLOAD NOW!!"
[AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.]
"JUST f.u.c.kING DO IT!"
[CONFIRMED, ALL CYCLOPS" NOW OPERATING ABOVE FACTORY SPECIFICATION STRESS LIMITS.]
Now barely able to keep up with Dax, the drones clearly operated way above any safety margins as they had a hard time even dodging smaller obstacles like branches and such, smas.h.i.+ng through them.
[INCOMING COMMUNICATION FROM UNIT 02.]
["WAITWAITWAIT!! We need to speak with Dax, It"s a engency!"]
["There"s a serious problem so we need to talk now!"]
"So Alice and the disappointment? Check for counterfeit signatures."
[SUBJECT, "ALICE" AND "DISAPPOINTMENT" CONFIRMED. LIFTING LEVEL 4 RESTRICTION.]
"So it is them, just tell the kids to stay put and then make your way to the outer wall."
[DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED….. COMMUNICATION COMPLETE.]
"Good then link me in and inisiate full domination, Spectors too."
[NOT ADVISED, RAW SENSOR FEED AT 5 PETABYTES PER SECOND.]
"That would be a bit much to process myself while fighting…. Override, suppress server cl.u.s.ter ICI OS and task array to handle sensory overflow, use 5 Specktors to set up a high speed databrige."
[OVERRIDE CONFIRMED, TASKING 5 GUARDIAN SPECTERS FOR DATA CONNECTION, STANDBY.. DATABRIDGE ESTABLISHED SERVER Cl.u.s.tER BASE OS SUPPRESSED, OVERFLOW NOW POSSIBLE.]
"Initiate full domination."
[PREPARING FOR CUSTOM MIND DOMINATION. WARING: COMPLETE MIND MELT IN EFFECT, ALL GUARDIAN SPECTORS AT 500 MS DELAY. EXPECTED CORRUPTION AT 100% PATTEN BLACK NOW IN EFFECT.]
Guardian Specter
The Guardian Specter is the highest cla.s.s of stealth communication and surveillance offered by Guardian"s robotic division after the failure of their drone platform race against REX heavy industries. Tracing its way back to the dawn of fourth generation warfare, the unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV have been a cornerstone of information gathering, and the Specter is a modern implementation of that doctrine. Taking the shape of a cylinder about 20 centimeters high and 60 wide, the monocopter drone is powered by a single counter rotating rotor and it"s lightweight design packed to the brim with sensor and communication equipment. The Specter gets its name from its advanced stealth capabilities, taking advantage of first generation low resolution active camouflage. The low resolution optical camouflage proved extremely capable in active warface, as a slew of Spectors was always operating at high alt.i.tude, making it not impossible to locate, but in most cases simply not worth it to find and try to shoot down a single UAV at a time when there often are multiple redundant Spectors ready to take over traffic and/or mark hostiles for elimination.
"[I have control.]"
In a single second Dax"s vision extended out way past his field of view, with the help of the Spectors he suddenly saw everything.
"[That really is a large lizard..]"
As sensors trained in on the current treat Dax saw what he could only describe as a dragon, large reptile wings that somehow still couldn"t explain extremely fast flight, and s.h.i.+ny reflective green scales covered all its body, from head to tail.
(Why the h.e.l.l does a dragon exist in this world?... Those scales look tough, so glad I bought the R04 special)
Making his way to the outer wall, Dax dropped the weapon case for the drones and jumped cleanly above the wall, landing somewhere in the industrial district. 2 of the drones picked up the weapon case and hurled it up the wall with great difficulty, after scaling the wall they ran in formation to the place at the wall the dragon was most likely to encounter first. Not caring for the confused guards, the drones carefully put down the weapons case and opened it. Inside was something entirely alien to the inhabitants of a world of magic. About 2 meters long and over half a meter wide, the strange machinery appeared to weigh an absurd amount as it took 3 drones to lift it out the case, cracking the stone floor below. The heavy machinery looked like a single barrel with 2 thirds covered in thick sequential armor plates on both sides.
[ENTERING SIGE MODE. EXTENDING STABILIZERS, STAND CLEAR.]
Not willing to doubt the strange golems in the process of setting up what looked like some sort of strange cannon, the surrounding guards stood back and spikes extended from the bottom of the cannon and pieced the stone floor, locking the equipment in place.
[STABILIZERS DEPLOYED. ENTERING SIGE MODE, EXTENDING AUXILIARY RAILS.]
As the odd machinery extended to solid looking metal square rods, making the construction about 3 meters long.
[GUARDIAN R04 SPECIAL CLa.s.s ANTI MATERIAL RAILGUN DEPLOYED, INITIATE PRIMARY READYSTATE CHARGING.]
Guardian R04 Special cla.s.s anti material railgun.
Born of a collaboration between Guardian"s 5th prototype division and the 125th h.e.l.lwalkers the R04 is properly the most extreme example of miniaturization in the Galactic empire. The idea of a man portable railgun has long been considered a pipe dream, with the difficulty of constructing durable, man portable rails capable of withstanding sustained fire, a pipe dream that has run multiple companies into bankruptcy. But money always talks, after a longer than necessary siege of some far off planet, that was needlessly extended by a lack of high powered air support due to extreme hostile air cover, h.e.l.lwalker command expressed interest in the pipe dream. Throwing an absurd amount of money at Guardian"s 5th prototype division, and cooperating with testing directly, the 125th h.e.l.lwalkers soon found themselves in the possession of a level of firepower that was until that point only found on fire support vehicles in form of the R04. Galactic senate doubted the authenticity of the weapon however, prompting an investigation of the military command, being accused of funneling money at some bogus project, promoting decla.s.sification of footage showing a single unnamed female qiton wielding the system solo and using it to utterly obliterate a bunker complex, forever ingraining the effectiveness of Guardian industries and the 125th h.e.l.lwalkers.
[PRIMARY READYSTATE CHARGING COMPLETE, RAIL WARMUP COMPLETE, MOVING ALL CYCLOPS" TO WAR LEVEL OUTPUT, PURGING HEATSINK COVER AND ENGAGING AIR COOLING.]
Having completed the initial setup of the railgun, the dones now readyed themself for combat as their reactors went into overdrive. Purging armor covers on their backs, multiple metal fans like the one in Dax had extended from their backs.
[AIR COOLING ONLINE, WAR LEVEL OUTPUT CONFIRMED.]
As each of the drones cooling arrays started glowing bright red, they all gathered around the railgun.
[CONTACT ESTIMATED IN 5 MINUTES, RO4 SELF CHARGE READY IN 10. TASKING UNIT 04 AND 05 FOR OVERLOAD.]
While two of the drones grabbed conductive surfaces to speed up the charging, Alice and Terra arrived, Terra having heard when the R04 was put in place.
"What the h.e.l.l is that?"
"You"re the one with sight, please tell me"
"Looks like some sort of… cannon? I think it"s something Dax brought along, judging by his drones guarding it."
"Miss Ranger do you have any idea what this is?"
Curious about Alice"s apparent knowledge about the stange golems and machine, the wall guards gathered around.
"Most likely some sort of weapon. it"s probably our best chance at beating that flying lizard or scaring it of."
"Oooh! But I"ve never seen this kind of weaponry before, is it some sort of new thing from the capital?"
"Not quite.. Anyone seen a large demonkin like man around?"
"No, only the strange golems."
["I have a name you know, by the way why are you kids here?"]
"Kyaa! Please stop that disgusting habit already!"
While Alice and Terra had talked with the guards a single drone had walked up behind Terra and spoke right into her ear.
["Nah I"m good, why are you girls here?"]
"We-"
"We"re not kids! We"re here to help in any way we can!"
In response to Terra"s outburst the drone looked like it was smiling.
["I"ll be sure to hold you to that then"]
"By the way where are you right now Dax?"
["Over at Alex"s workshop having a beer while the drones do the footwork"]
"Wh!"
["That was a joke, you really have no sense of humor Terra, so pathetic. I"m in route, be there in a minute."]
"Get here now, the dragon is almost here!"
["Okay okay, then take a step back or you"ll be crushed~"]
"What the h.e.l.l are you-"
"Watch out!"
Not getting to finish her sentence, Alice pulled Terra backwards, right as Dax landed with a bang.
["Here I am~ Now I a.s.sume you girls are here to help?"]
"Are you insane!"
["you already know the answer to that question Terra~ "]
As Dax answered Terra"s rhetorical question he handed two large rectangular s.h.i.+elds over to the drones.
["Now any of you guards know how to kill a green scaled dragon?.. no, no one? Well I have a pretty good idea how, but I"ll need help from all of you."]
"C-can you really kill it?"
["You see that cannon behind me?"]
"Is that a cannon? It doesn"t really look like one?"
["That"s because it"s a railgun, while I have no idea how tough that dragons scales are, this railgun can punch right through it. Problem is the charge time, the railgun is ready to fire in about 5 minutes, the dragon will be here in 3."]
"T-then what are we gonna do?"
["It"s simple, we p.i.s.s it off"]
"I knew it.. So can we help out somehow?"
["Of course my dear Alice~ Grab a gauss rifle, what about you Terra?"]
"S-sure I"ll help out!"
["Good~ Alice teach her how to use a gauss rifle, you both have 3 minutes"]
Handing Terra his reaper mask, Dax shooed them off to the side and then addressed the guards.
["Now I"ll also need the help from you guys, keep any other bystanders and guards away from here. I know there are some more… problematic elements among the guards, and I don"t want them messing up my attempt at killing the dragon, so block them off and keep them from interfering"]
""""""Yes sir!""""""
While flas.h.i.+ng his black guild tag, Dax firmly established himself as the de facto commander over the guards present, and somehow each one of them swore loyalty to him internally.
["Good. Then let"s get to killing this flying pest~ Split up into 2 man cells and block the entry points to my area of operations!"]