In the harsh and thin air of the angel controlled mountain range Dax had spotted what was presumably the Northern republic warband headed for the 14th archangel sanctuary in a wally down below.

"What f.u.c.k kind of code language is that?"

Standing next to him was the archangel Solaris, looking quite confused in response to his way of speaking.

["Baggage be quiet or I will gag you. ICI relay target coordinates trough sat uplink, tag highest target density and plot me a splash that will make them non combat effective."]

"Ah there they are, can you really hit them from there?"

Spotting what looked to be the group in the distance Solaris put on a teasing smile.

[CALCULATING STRIKE TRAJECTORY….. ERROR, NO POSSIBLE DESCENT ANGLE.]

["Really? Give me a recalc please."]

[RECALCULATING STRIKE TRAJECTORY….. COMPLETE. STRIKE TRAJECTORY #1 AS FOLLOWS: CHARGE R04 235.4%, FIRE ANGLE 74 DEGREES ADJUSTMENT +4, ON RELATIVE GRID G4, R8, O3. SEND ONE HIGHEX FRAG, ESTIMATED CASUALTIES 75% CONFIRM STRIKE Y/N?]

"Now the creepy voice is speaking in codes too…"

["Wait 235% Charge? That will blow up the R04… f.u.c.k I wish I had orbital artillery, what I would give for just a single round of highex up high…"]

Because his target was currently on a valley surrounded by mountains it proved impossible to strike from such distance without overcharging the railgun to a extreme level and sending a projectile in a ballistic trajectory, so Dax had to figure out another way of dealing with them.

["Oh looks like they're stopping for the day.. That's great, ICI increase formation s.p.a.cing and give me a halfmoon formation at a range of 2 klicks."]

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED AND UNDERSTOOD, SETTING UP KILLZONE.]

Having understood Dax's intent the now white painted drones quickly spread out in a line with Dax in the middle as he started advancing.

"Hey what the h.e.l.l is going on!?"

As she was completely ignored by Dax Solaris was understandably annoyed as she moved in front to block him off while demanding an explanation.

["Move, baggage."]

With Dax's command all drones around him stopped in their tracks and pointed their rifles at Solaris.

"What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you Dax?"

["Nothing is wrong with me, I'm just p.i.s.sed off. I was getting suspicious after my talk with the council so I had a talk with the crown princess of the Kingdom about your history and relations.h.i.+p with the Northern republic. After finding fertile ground near a strategic strongpoint you settled your followers on ground that was not theirs, then drove out the natives into a cold f.u.c.kking wasteland and just f.u.c.kking left them there to suffer for 2000 years without doing anything but blocking them off from their land. Failure to defeat one's enemy is a special kind of f.u.c.king failure, but just leaving them in a wasteland while constantly holding them in a choke? That's not only cruel but downright evil."]

"T-that is becau-"

["I don't f.u.c.king care. You brought me in to fix this, and I'm going to fix it. I'm going to crush them as fast as possible so to bring the suffering to an end, so to start the healing of the people's suffering. Now I don't need you here to do that, in fact you are a just a f.u.c.king deadweight at this point so I'll treat you as baggage, that means: 1) If the baggage is heavy I'll leave it behind 2) If the baggage throws a fit I will gag it and then leave it behind, understood?"]

"U-understood…"

Laying out concrete ground rules with deadly intent behind his words Solaris was forced to agree to Dax's therms.

[WARNING: WAR PROTOCOL IN EFFECT, SCRAMBLING COMMS AND REORGANIZING HIVE MIND COMMAND AND CONTROL MESH… COMPLETE, 120 SECONDS TO NEXT SCRAMBLE.]

["ICI keep that message on internal please"]

[CONFIRMED.]

---

"Let's stop here for today! Squad 1 on tent duty, squad 2 handle overwatch and squad 3 heats up the rations while squad 4 and 5 take a rest!"

"""""SIR, YES SIR!"""""

Having made appropriate progress for the day, the warband chief quickly delegated tasks needed to set up camp as he took out a map and logged his barings.

(Just 2 more days and we reach the sanctuary, the time have finally come for the angeles to suffer like we have for so long..)

Sitting down on a nearby rock the chief took a moment to admire their reason for success, a device capable of jamming enemy magic while boosting the magic from allies.

(It truly is a marvel, the engineering clans really outdid themselves this time.)

Ever since being banished to the cold winter plane the Republic was founded on they knew it would never be possible to match the angels directly, so they didn't. Spending multiple generations they expanded out on the frozen desolate plane, finding and then exploiting any resources they could find to realize their revenge. That was supposedly how they achieved the device, but the warband chief was not dull enough to think the jammer was a result of that effort even after being told that by his superiors. It looked truly alien at first glance, like a mix between some kind of rock and pure metal, with metal carrying handles and sleds underneath it so it could also be pushed along. The surface was covered with runic inscriptions and it released a quiet humm that made the warriors and mages of the warband initially stay away from it, until they ran in to the first sentinel. Watching what had continued to oppress their people as a unreachable killing machine for over 2000 years fall to the ground and be destroyed after simply coming too close to the jammer really made it spike in popularity among the warband, even if no one understood how it worked.

"Here's your food sir."

"Ah, thanks."

Being snapped out of his chain of thought as a subordinate handed him a metal tin with piping hot stew the warband chief instead turned his attention to her.

"You're from the iron diving clan right? How are you holding up?"

Noticing the distinkt clan mark on the subordinates coat he asked about how she was handling the cold

"Yes sir, this cold is nothing to me, but the air is getting a bit thin. On the other hand I'm worried about the rest of my squad, some of them already has slight frostbite."

"Yeah I've noticed that too, let's hold a bit earlier tomorrow and make the healer take a look at everyone… Get back to your station now."

Suddenly the chief felt a chill, making him heighten his awareness as he looked to the surrounding hills.

(What is that…)

Narrowing his eyes as he covertly grabbed his sword the surrounding people started to notice something wrong too as they slightly slowed down their tasks and glanced towards the chief for instructions.

"AMBUs.h.!.+ s.h.i.+ELDS ALL AROUND NOW!"

Making a split second decision the warchief precisely commanded his elite unit that also reacted on a dime and as a single element, having drilled together for the current mission for years. Not even a split second after the command from the chief, the area around the warband bloomed with active mana as spikes of bedrock shot up from the ground surrounding them on all sides in a flawless wall formation, and not a second too late.

"Gunfire, 3 to 11 o'clock! squad 4 on perimeter guard, rest form a line and get ready for the follow up charge!"

-

["Tch. ICI move pattern sigma and increase combat engagement"]

Having his ambush seen through Dax was slightly p.i.s.sed as he relayed new orders to the drones that surrounded the warband.

[DIRECTIVES RELATED TO DRONE MESH, BOMBARDMENT OF HOSTILES RECOMMENDED.]

["No bombardment, we're limited on ammo. Set up a ration and limit ammo consumption to 50%"]

[ORDER CONFIRMED. LOWERING SUPPRESSIVE RATE OF FIRE CLOSING RANGE TO 1 CLICK ON YOUR MARK.]

["ZU RA!"]

[ADVANCING.]

With Dax's shout the drones slowly started closing the range with Dax as they intermittently let off snapshots towards the walled encampment to suppress the enemy.

-

"f.u.c.k I'm hit! Medic!"

Inside the encampment things weren't looking so good.

"Keep down!"

Even after having correctly predicted the ambush, the warband hadn't come out of it perfectly. A few people had been hit by the initial burst of rounds as the bedrock had proven too brittle against a shots from the Galactic Empire's hybrid gauss rifles and casualties were still mounting form blindfire that pierced the wall even as it was constantly being reinforced.

"Arg, f.u.c.k! Keep it together people! Healers only heal those you can reach from cover and stay put we'll need you later too! Mages split into 2 teams! One keeps the wall reinforced and the other f.u.c.ks up whatever is shooting at us! Blindfire, use wide area magic!"

"""""SIR, YES SIR!"""""

Starting a counter offensive while maintaining their defence, the mages from the warband started tossing wide area spells over the wall while they did their best to repair it too. This proved effective as about 10 minutes after the shooting had started it was starting to quiet down, with only occasional snapshots coming from the opponent once in a while.

"They're going to charge soon, get ready! I'll see all of you on the other side!"

"""""SIR, YES SIR"""""

As the firing completely quieted down the almost deafening silence of the snow covered mountain returned, adding on the suspense the warband was feeling as they awaited a bitter fight while tightly grasping their weaponry. The silence was broken with a deafening bang as something landed in the middle of the camp and knocked up snow, blocking sight momentarily. Robbed of sight the warband focused on sound as the snow cleared and prepared for a fight to the death.

"AARGH-" *CRACK*

As the smoke cleared a single figure stood in the middle of the camp holding a member of the warband lifted above the ground in his neck. The figure stood over 2 meters tall completely enclosed in some kind of strangely smooth looking pure black armor that seemed to absorb the surrounding light. Even the figure's head was covered completely in some kind black helmet that linked perfectly with the rest of the armor, making some of the warband think of it as a complete suit of armor without a host.

["Last chance to surrender."]

Standing completely unarmed the figure slowly tightened its grip on the warrior it had caught while making a casual and synthetic sounding ultimatum.

"WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER TO A FREAK LI-" *CRACK*

As the warrior from he had caught answered his ultimatum Dax tightened his grip and crushed his neck completely and then threw the copse aside.

["Then I will make this as fast as possible."]

Closing the distance to the nearest target in the blink of an eye Dax let loose the full power of his enhanced body against a human target for the first time. Landing a punch on the closest warrior even before he registered it Dax completely pulverized his skull and grabbed the arm of the copse, throwing it at another nearby warrior as he charged his next target.

"Don't underestimate us!"

Proving more combat able than his last opponent the next warrior swung down his large longsword at Dax, but to little effect.

["Soft."]

"Wh"

Dax simply caught the blade with his hand before it reached him and snapped it in half, catching the broken off shard with his other hand Dax then drove it into his opponents eye socket, killing him instantly.

["Next."]

"d.a.m.n you!"

Next Dax incurred the wrath of the nearby mages, as they had managed to coordinate slightly in the few seconds since Dax had tossed the first copes aside. Having completed their chant they sent spheres of fire rus.h.i.+ng towards him.

["Naive."]

Pointing his right arm towards the spells it split open and revealed 3 chrome metal rods inside.

"What!?"

As the spells vanished without a trace Dax's opponent's was understandably confused as they almost didn't believe their eyes, creating a deadly gap for Dax to exploit, which he did fully. Kicking nearby rocks on the ground, Dax killed a few of the mages and blinded the rest with what was almost a shotgun blast of rockshards as the rocks fragmented due to his immense strength.

"WORK TOGETHER AND SURROUND HIM, FORMATION 5!"

["Leader located."]

[HOSTILE HVT LOCATED. READY FOR DIRECT INTELLIGENCE EXTRACTION: ALL OFFENSIVE FIREWALLS READY.]

As the warchief tried to organize his troops he made the deadly mistake of revealing himself to Dax.

"Fuc-"

Realizing that as Dax charged him, figuratively and literally running through the warchiefs men he saw his life pa.s.s before his eyes as he prepared to die for his Republic with honor.

"COME ON!!"

Raising his ma.s.sive two handed sword overhead, the chief brought it down with deadly intent as he tried to decapitate the charging Dax.

["Nice try."]

Smas.h.i.+ng the warchief's sword with his left arm Dax reached in with his right and grabbed his head with his right arm.

["Goodbye."]

[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. NOW EXTRACTING CEREBRAL DATA.]

As Dax grabbed the warchief he started screaming in pain as he desperately tried to punch and kick Dax before falling limp after a few seconds.

[RAW CEREBRAL DATA EXTRACTED, NOW PROCESSING 2.5 PETABYTES OF RAW DATA...…. COMPLETED. READY FOR EVALUATION BY COMMAND, HAVE A NICE DAY.]

With their leader reduced to a twitching copse foaming at the mouth laying in the red snow after being tossed aside by the black armored t.i.tan, the rest of the warband started losing their morale.

["ICI clean up the rest."]

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, COMMENCING MOB UP OPERATION.]

Taking a more pa.s.sive stance as his drones jumped over the other wall into the compound and started killing the rest of the warband Dax sighed deeply as he quietly spoke out inside the suit which cut him off from the slaughter outside.

"Good fight."