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"They're they are."

Looking out into the distance, out over the endless blue ocean Lux finally spoke out when she noticed a slight s.h.i.+ft in the horizon. After liberating Abel's village Lux, Lilly, Terra, Iris, Mare, Abel and Zephyr had reached their objective. The villages inhabitants were glad to finally be free of occupation, but when they learned of their liberators true objective grat.i.tude turned to mere tolerance. Lux a.s.sured them that they would remove the reason for their invasion in the first place, while making sure such a thing would never happen again. As part of that promise Abel was returned to his mother and Opal would be freed and also returned as fast as possible, and that was today. The CAS-7A approached fast and low, as if making an attack run or approaching a hot zone to make a drop off It flew centimeters above sea level before flaring at the last possible moment turing its thrusters retrograde and spreading out its wings like an eagle pouncing on a pery then flipped around and opened the rear ramp just as it touched down. This action was of course completely deliberate, it was a show of force to the numerous poorly hidden surveillance spells in effect around the small atoll.

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(Showoff…)

Mentally commenting on the flawless execution of her superiors piloting Lux also wondered when they could all stop being unwilling actors for whoever was watching, and she got her answer immediately when the rear ramp of the CAS-7A opened fully. The first person to step out was someone Lux was not completely familiar with, she was about Dax's height wearing gray shorts and peach coloured t s.h.i.+rt which she somehow matched with a white and red bulletproof facemask that covered her entire face. As she stepped out of the CAS-7A an array of golden halos spread out over her head while she spread out her six pure white angelic wings, before flapping them once and sending out some kind of mana pulse that spread outwards at the speed of sound.

"It's clear now, I've blinded them all."

"Good work, both of you. h.e.l.lo Lux."

Afterwards Dax stepped out onto the tropical sand on his new cybernetic legs to look around as he greeted his subordinate with a smile on his face.

"Who is she?"

Completely ignoring everything else at the moment Lux stared rudely at the blond angel as she took off her white and red facemask.

"I am-"

"Not interested, who is this human pigeon Dax? And why does she have a mask?"

Interrupting Solaris as she tried her best to introduce herself Lux laid her eyes on Dax as the temperature around her dropped several degrees. Having learned to stay calm Solaris didn't immediately flare with anger, while it also helped that who she a.s.sumed to be Dax's so called 'adorable second in command' used the exact same insult he himself had been using for a while. Instead of anger her mind turned to wonder instead, as she looked at the strange mask Dax had given her a few days ago and appeared to be Lux's source of anger. I had the same smooth and uniform surface with a metallic feel as the completely black one Dax always had on or near him, but instead of having a pure black face the one he had given Solaris was split vertically in the middle, being bright red on the left and pure white on the right.

"Lux meet Solaris. Solaris meet Lux Jameson, she's second in command of the 125th and often in charge when it comes to ground combat."

"..."

"Nice to meet you miss Lux, I hope we can get along."

Being introduced to Lux by Dax Solaris did her best to give a warm and polite greeting, but Lux still didn't seem to acknowledge her existence.

"She has the spark."

"Really?"

Solaris had no idea what the so called 'spark' was, but she understood Dax was working things over with Lux and warming her up to the idea of working together with her, so she kept quiet.

"You don't believe me?"

"You taught me not to, unless given a good reason and/or evidence to support it."

"I saw it myself."

"... Okay, but I will still a.s.sess her myself at a later point in time. Nice to meet you Solaris, from this point on you will address me as 'ma'am' or lieutenant general'."

Leaving with her with that greeting Lux turned around and left Solaris and Dax to find their way to the village themselves.

"What was that about?"

Seeking explanation from Dax now that Lux had left Solaris looked at him with the kind of expression that showed she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Lux grew up to join and eventually lead the 125th, therefore she holds the force to an extremely high standard. You having your own mask means you are part of it now, and she's p.i.s.sed off at me for not giving her a say in it."

"I see, so these mask hold that kind of meaning… Is every one of them different?"

Understanding that she had obtained something truly precious while not realizing that holding one of the Reaper masks as she did now automatically made her one of the most respected people in the Galactic Empire Solaris asked for more details on the masks.

"Yeah, each and everyone of them are different. Mine is pure black and integrates with my custom cybernetic eye, Lux's mask in black with a white skull and has an extremely wide field of view, your mask lacks the mana sensing function and instead has even more armor protection and finally Terra's lacks any customization at the moment, due to her still undergoing training."

Taking the new information to heart Solaris suddenly formed a large child like smile as she realized something.

"So mine has more armor protection than the others.. Does that mean you worry about me? Or do you feel that I am important, and you couldn't bare to lose me?~ Is that a sudden confession?~ Hey tell me, you don't have to be shy~"

With her smile growing more and more smug by the second Solaris hid it with the tip of one of her wings as she fully took advantages and twisted Dax's words to tease him.

"Not really."

"Eh?"

But she had made a fatal mistake of not accounting for Dax's sometimes brutal honesty.

"Of the options there were available to me none of them would really fit you that well so I just those more armor in the end, oh and it's not really going to save you, if something can pierce the normal armor of the mask, it can pierce the extra armor too."

Having taken too much mental damage Solaris failed to formulate a response to Dax's honest answer and therefore just chose to drop the subject entirely.

"Are you two done talking? In that case the village is this way, my mother properly wants to have a few words with you Dax."

"Sure, lead the way."

Taking that moment to interject in their conversation Opal lead Dax to the village so he could have a talk with its current leader.