"Well, although that is to be expected, it's still nice to hear… Are you guys ready? We're punching into their territory now."

"Ready."

"Let's do this."

"We've trained for this."

"... All of you look ready, then let's do this."

Sitting inside an AHEWP transport, Dax looked at Lilly, Terra, and Alice, all of them looked like hardened soldiers to him.

[FIRE SUPPORT ON STATION, READY FOR TASKING.]

"Suppressing fire, remain on station."

Opening up the top hatch as AHEWP itself emerged above the waterline, looking ahead at the bombarded coastline as multiple landing crafts formed up behind and in front of Dax's transport.

[HOSTILES DETECTED, NOW PAINTING 209 NEW TARGETS.]

Just as Dax and his forces emerged from the water near the coast, so did the Empire's true protectors. Forming up in formations as they sucked in the ambient mana from the surroundings, over 200 angels came to meet Dax's detachment head on.

"Repel the invaders! For the glory of-"

Before the commander could finish his speech he was taken out by precision railgun fire, as his headless corpse slowly fell to the ground his subordinates sprang into action.

"Here they come, lock them down!"

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, FIRE ORDER RECEIVED. DEPLOYING 204 MILL MANA DISRUPTION Sh.e.l.lS, AIRBURST.]

On Dax's command, serval SAM AHEWP unloaded their payload towards the sky as railgun carrying variants started rapid firing airburst sh.e.l.ls. Among the sudden hail of flak and fire, the angels suddenly found it extremely hard to concentrate and formulate offensive or even the most basic of defensive spells. 

"Javelin formation: h.e.l.lfire!"

Still, some of the angels managed to fire off a few spells towards the invading forces, to great effect. As spears of concentrated fire rained down on the densely packed landing force, casualties steadily increased on both sides. The only difference between the angels and Dax's forces was that he was prepared for sacrifices, as almost all of his units were expendable.

[UNIT 19 DISABLED, ENACTING DENIAL PROTOCOL, DUMPING MUNITIONS.]

As unit 19 was. .h.i.t with a stray spell, damage control protocol immediately deemed it beyond saving and started sinking below the waves, but before it was unable to fire off its surface to air missiles, all 94 remaining missiles were launched and put into a holding pattern before they could be re tasked by other units. While the angels started routing at 40% casualties, Dax wouldn't even flinch at 99%.

"Ahh, it's been a long time since I've faced such a stupid opponent… If you're facing an opponent that uses drones then don't try to face them head on, fall back and use unconventional warfare to slowly drain their supplies."

Breathing a deep sigh as the last angel fell from the sky, Dax looked around at the ma.s.sive casualties which he had suffered before breathing a deep sigh.

"ICI what's the number?"

[CASUALTIES AT 74%.]

"Only 74%? Oh well, bring in the second wave."

[ROGER.]

As Dax's AHEWP hit the beach he jumped out of the transport with a REX rifle in hand while an even larger landing force emerged out from the water and started preparations for landfall.

"Let's get this show on the road, bring in the heavy armor too."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, COMMENCING DE ORBIT BURN.]

Having secured a foothold, streaks of fire appeared on the horizon behind Dax's initial landing force.

While some people might think it was a mere coincidence, people more adept in military tactics and doctrine might see that they were falling towards the ground while maintaining a strict formation. Cras.h.i.+ng to the ground at a shallow angle the purpose built a.s.sault barges succeed the purpose they were designed to and ground to a halt using build in thrusters and drogue parachutes.

[DEPLOYMENT SUCCESSFUL, REX HAWOC NOW IGNITING PRIMARY POWER PLANT… STARTUP SUCCESSFUL. 

FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM: ONLINE.

PRIMARY ARMAMENT: ONLINE.

SECONDARY ARMAMENT: ONLINE.

TERTIARY ARMAMENT: ONLINE.

ACTIVE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM: ONLINE.

FLIGHT SYSTEMS: ONLINE.

ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE. MOVING INTO FORMATION, READING BEACON 5 BY 5.]

Roaring to life as its turbines greedily sucked up air to cool its fusion reactor, the HAWOC area domination platform commenced its prime directive as it fell into formation while surrounding the port town that the imperial navy used to call home.

"Why exactly are we occupying this city?"

Looking around at deserted streets and burning s.h.i.+ps that filled the harbor Lilly saw nothing of value, other than the numerous HAWOC area domination platforms that now occupied the area. Standing in the middle of what had until a few minutes ago been a vibrant plaza, Lilly made the mistake of complaining near Dax.

"This is basically a military base so there's not even a bar where I can get wasted…"

And if waiting for that exact moment, Dax appeared out of nowhere and flicked Lilly right in the face as to deliver an iron fist of justice.

"Oi, take this a bit more seriously."

"Arg! Why would you do that!?"

Watching Lilly's entire head turn just as red as her hair and the mark he had just made on her forehead, Dax still remained stern as a slightly s.a.d.i.s.tic smile crept onto his face.

"You already know that~"

Looking at Dax's smile Lilly quickly remembered that she had promised to take this seriously, and as that dawned on her, the so called 'elder's' face twisted as her face turned red for an entirely different reason, as did her ears.

"O-of course I know that!... I was merely testing you to see if you also remembered th Arg!"

(Bringing this one with me was a mistake…)

While holding such thoughts as he flicked Lilly's forehead once more, Dax checked up on his drones using the networked subprocessor embedded in his artificial spine.

(The HAWOC's are doing fine, because of course they are when put up against people armed with messely magic, bows and swords… The problem is the preemptive strike.)

With the surprise attack on the Empire, Dax had initially targeted any top officials and military leaders he could, but they had only been targets of opportunity. The real targets were the local commanders, those who would take orders from the very top and make them a reality by commanding those beneath them. By eliminating that level of the enemy command structure just as the Empire was trust into an economic crisis, the emperor would be left with a lot of strategists, but no way to act.

(Their entire command and control structure sure is monolithic… I guess the Empire really has been relying too much on the angels, specifically the 22nd sanctuary.)

Zoning out while completely ignoring which was still making excuses right in front of him, Dax started a.s.sessing the damage his preemptive strikes had done to the area's he would be pa.s.sing through over the next 4 hours before reaching the imperial capital, that is until something more important caught his attention.

"Eh!?"

All of a sudden Dax reached out and pulled Lilly into his chest, making the elver in question quite fl.u.s.tered, so fl.u.s.tered that she didn't even notice the arrow which had just barely missed her head until a few seconds later.

"So some elements were still able to organize… Oh, well."

Now that a group of surviving sailors had made declared themselves hostile, Dax's drone network would take care of the rest.

[HOSTILE ELEMENT LOCATED, TASKING HAWOC DELTA FOR PURGE.]

With a low pitched hum that could be felt in one's stomach from miles away, the tasked HAWOC unit took to the sky as it jumped about 200 meters, landing in the open plaza were Dax and Lilly were. As the HAWOC unit knocked up quite a bit of dust with its landing, its figure was momentarily hidden from the sailors who had targeted Lilly, only the HAWOC's lidar shone through the thick layer of dust in the air, giving it a red tinge as another low pitched hum was heard along with the rattling of ammunition which was brought out of the ammo rack and loaded by mechanical systems.

[TARGETS ACQUIRED, EXTERMINATING HOSTILE CONTACTS.]

Without a warning, HAWOC delta opened up with its numerous heavy machine guns, creating a truly morbid light show as tracer rounds ripped through the dust, buildings and flesh alike without resistance or mercy. As the sounds of the countless machineguns drowned out the screams of the countless people that felt victims to them, the attack still didn't seem real to Lilly, after all, only a few seconds had pa.s.sed since Dax pulled her close to protect her from that arrow which was about to hit her. As fast as the shooting had started, it stopped, signified by another low pitched hum from the HAWOC unit as the smell of dust, gunpowder and blood mixed into the air.

"T-those things really don't hold back do they?"

"Of course not, it's a HAWOC, mercy is not a part of its programming, nor its operational doctrine."

HAWOC, or Heavily Armored Weapon platform for complete operational and tactical Control, as Lilly looked at the large 6 legged tank with countless different weapons strapped to it for the first, she immediately thought that it lived up to its name perfectly.

"In any case, I'm glad that they're on our side~ With these, it should be no problem conquer the empire!"

Looking at Lilly who suddenly became way too confident, Dax restrained himself from flicking her face again and breathed a deep sigh.

(I hope it'll be that easy, just as long as the Emperor doesn't have something completely outrageous up his sleeve we should be okay…)