"I do, extremely well, miss?"

As soon as Grishu sat down with the strange humankin, she started laying out Grishu's situation like she wasn't aware of it herself.

"My name is Lux. I'm sorry if I'm coming across as rude, but time is of the essence. If you'll accept our help we'll immediately render a.s.sistance and wipe out the monsters before helping to relocate your people."

Presenting an extremely tempting offer, Grishu was about to accept the aid offered seemingly out of nowhere when she asked herself why Lux would just offer something like that.

"... Just like that?"

"Yeah, just like that. Although this is more about disadvantaging our mutual enemies and setting up for an eventual type 17 black operation. I won't go as far as to say something like 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', but realistically this is your people's last chance at survival. I'll give you some time to think it over."

Leaving Grishu behind Lux went out to walk around the castle, observing the situation as well as the people of the Ta'ai clan.

(Surprisingly resilient…)

Lux had expected the Ta'ai people to be in a rough state after having been stuck inside the castle and under siege for so long, but that seemed to not be the case. Children were playing and old folk were lazing around out in the sun, if anything it looked more like a national holiday than anything else.

"Attack! South gate!"

But in reality, it was more of a facade. It seemed like the civilians understood that if they panicked they would burden the people protecting them and thus they tried to remain calm.

(The south gate?... I might as well.)

Not one to pa.s.s up a fight Lux bloomed a bloodthirsty smile as she started running south, reaching the gate in a matter of seconds. Joined on the way by confused guards who struggled to understand what an unnamed humankin was doing heading towards a fight, some of them even tried to stop Lux, that is until they saw the look she had on her face.

"Contact. 7 hostiles."

Calling out her situation out of habit, Lux jumped over the southern gate and landed on the other side to find 7 opponents she hoped would alleviate a bit of her boredom.

"Hey! What are you doing!?"

Instead of choosing to answer the fl.u.s.tered guard Lux took a wide stance as she let all the air out of her lungs and closed her eyes as a crystal infected dire wolf charged her. With a sharp breath, Lux seemed to disappear from the guard's sight as she left deep cracks in the dry earth below her, reappearing right in front of the dire wolf as she lowered her stance to get below the creature. Hitting the bottom part of the beasts jaw with an open palm, Lux crushed every bone in the monster's skull while a truly horrific sound spread throughout the area. Chaining the open palm strike with a kick, Lux sent the now mangled corpse of the 400 kilo dire wolf flying into a nearby stone boulder where it splattered all over the place.

(Splash 1.)

Strengthening her core with another sharp inhale Lux jumped into the air towards a human like monster with crystals growing out of its eyes. Flipping twice in the air Lux landed on the creature's shoulders, twisting a full rotation as she locked her feet around its head as she landed hands first on the ground and did a somersault and used the rotation she added to the severed head she still held between her feet to fling it towards another human like monster before she charged it. Closing the range in an instant Lux gripped the monsters right forearm, doing a quick twist to dislocate the elbow joint, then punched its palm and sent the Ulna bone flying like a stake into the creature's head.

(Splash 3, next.)

With a quick scan of her eyes as while she breathed out, Lux scanned the area and planed out her attack on the last 4 monsters, then she took another sharp breath.

"amazing…"

While Lux was working her way through the monsters, the guards which had tried to stop Lux were at a loss for words. Not even 30 seconds had pa.s.sed before all the monsters had been utterly annihilated and it had been all been done by a single unarmed humankin.

"s.h.i.+t… I was supposed to make this last a little longer.

Finding that not even a minute had pa.s.sed since she got the idea to pa.s.s some of the time by waiting for Grishu to make a decision, Lux was tempted to arc back her head and start groaning at the sky, but in the end, she chose not to as she was currently on a diplomatic mission. Looking around at the havoc she had created Lux walked over to one of the dead monsters who was more or less in one piece, finding a nearby branch and using it to dig around in the creature's head.

(Looks like the crystalline structure has completely infected the host's brain, destroying almost everything other than the motor cortex… So it is some sort of parasite, in that case, what's the delivery method?)

"Please be careful doing that! Most people who have come in close contact with these creatures have gotten sick!"

(So it's some kind of airborne pathogen? Or does it rely on touch?)

Mostly ignoring one of the guard's warning, Lux chose to look closer at the monster's mouth and claws. At first look, nothing was out of the ordinary, but when she looked closer and the sunlight hit in just the right way she noticed small and fragile crystal like growths were present on the monsters teeth, claws and in its saliva.

"There it is… So it's depended on touch, although some of those seeds could float in the air and present a risk of infection in case of high enough doses… That makes no sense."

As a parasite, it was an ideal transmission vector. After taking over the mind of a host, the crystal parasite would make the host attack other animals and spread that way, but that was exactly the problem, this wasn't a parasite, it was a bioweapon.

(They must have put at least some amount of effort into creating this thing, in that case how do they stop it from infecting their own forces?... Selective immunity? No, that wouldn't make sense as it's not only dragonkin being infected, but also humans…)

Thinking about it logically while drawing inspiration from other types of biological weapon systems she had encountered before, Lux started to have a rough idea about what this crystal parasite was and how it operated.

(That's seriously f.u.c.ked up, even by my standards…)

-

As midday slowly turned to afternoon, Lux was contacted by Grishu trough one of the guards, it seemed like she had come to a conclusion. Making her way to their earlier meeting spot, Lux was pointed to another room where Grishu sat over a bedridden dragonkin.

"Let me introduce you, this is Zao, my husband."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Zao, my name is Lux. I've come to render a.s.sistance to your people."

Seeing that Grishu's husband was unconscious, Lux still greeted him properly with a light bow out of respect while she introduced herself out of respect before continuing the topic at hand.

"Lady Grishu, have you reached a decision?"

"I have… Please save my people, and my husband."

Bowing deeply as she asked for help, Lux could feel Grishu's desperation leak trough her graceful exterior, but she chose not to comment on it.

"Then let's get right to it. I need a large and open place to land materials, do you have anything which fits that description within the walls?"

"I do, follow me."

Leading the way, Grishu showed Lux to a plaza normally used for training guards but now occupied by tents for the evacuated civilians.

"How is this?"

"Perfect, how fast can it be cleared out?"

"Within the hour."

Working in sync Lux quickly made preparations with the help of lady Grishu, then after an hour, the landing zone was cleared out.

"ICI primary LZ marked, commence operation. Secure LZ bravo and move to establish area security, I want a 2 click safe zone up and running within 10 minutes. Create a beachhead, drop the Scorpion's in pattern delta 1 click out."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED. FIRST TEAM INBOUND, ETA: 30 SECONDS. SCORPIONS IN PLAY, NOW COMMENCING DE ORBIT BURN.]

At Lux's command serval units who had remained on standby woke up and commenced operation following her directives. Immediately a CAS-7A filled to the brim with Reaper drones and basic equipment created a sonic boom as it came in for a suicide burn, landing then dusting off within a matter of seconds as the drones deployed with utmost efficiency.

[SQUARD 1 ON STATION, ESTABLIs.h.i.+NG LANDING ZONE ALPHA.]

Bringing with them Guardian-R04 small calibre railguns on pre prepared mounts the drones split up and quickly established firing positions on the castle's outer wall while some of the others popped flares and threw them in predetermined locations around the cleared out area before they started laying out metal mats which hardened into plates that could support the weight of heavier crafts.

[LANDING ZONE ALPHA ESTABLISHED.]

"Good, bring in the generators next and hook them up to the R04's I want continues fire to be a possibility within the next 5 minutes!"

[ROGER.]

While Lux continued setting up base, lady Grishu and her people were at a loss for words. Even if some of them had seen the craft Lux arrived in, they only believed a single one of them existed, let alone not tens of them, not to mention even larger crafts which started landing and unloading goods at a rapid pace.

"Lady Grishu, please allow me to introduce you to the 125th combined ops...o...b..tal drop troopers, 459th expeditionary company of the Galactic Empire navy. You and your people are in good hands now, we'll take it from here."