Looking around at the surrounding empty buildings Solaris was sure there was someone watching her, but she had no idea from where. After breaking through minimal resistance Dax and Solaris had entered the capital city of Homestead and had immediately been surrounded by the large 5 story buildings on all sides, perfect for an ambush.

["It is, they're looking at us from all round…. Be ready, hand on my shoulder at all times."]

"And tap once for a treat in my field of view, and if I feel personally threatened I move to the front of you and to the right."

["Yup."]

[CONTACT FRONT, 11 AND 2 O'CLOCK. CONTACT REAR, 5 O'CLOCK HIGH.]

["MOVEMENT! Head's up!"]

"Up!"

[UP, DOPPLER RADAR ACTIVE, READY FOR INTERCEPTION. XMRA ACTIVE EXPLOSIVE REACTIVE ARMOR ONLINE.]

Bringing up his own rifle and disabling the safety with a click Dax scanned the rooftops around him as his command also made ICI activate his ERA as Solaris that moved right behind him formed serval golden crystals that floated around her ready for targets. As the formation almost completely came to a hold the 3 drones following Dax and Solaris moved into a circle formation around them as something in front of them finally broke the eerie silence.

["Contact front!"]

Hering what sounded like a small rock being flipped by someone walking Dax shouded out (mostly for Solaris' sake) as he saw what looked to be a woman and her small child walked out ahead of them.

["ICI move ERA to manual"]

[ERA MOVING TO MANUAL FIRE CONTROL, CONTACT FRONT, 50 METERS.]

"WHY ARE YOU HERE!?"

Screaming at the top of her lungs the mother started walking at Dax and the drones while clutching her child.

["Allow me to flip that question, why are you here? I mean except to try and distract me from the ambush of course? But bringing your child into this as well. Is it because you a.s.sume I won't kill children, or is it because you a.s.sume bringing a child with you would make me not aware of your rugged hands that over the last year or so have mostly handled a sword and not held a child?"]

"Eh?"

["Execute"]

With the 'mothers' confusion as a que Dax's drones all let lose their rifles at the same time, shooting at rooftops, connors and other suspected ambush locations. With silence following for a few seconds after that Dax gave a nod as he reported.

["All targets down."]

With the cover formation breaking down Solaris was still a bit confused but also cut off the mana supply to her waiting spell and followed Dax that walked towards the 'mother' without a care in the world.

"Wait, what happened!?"

["I see all, do you honestly think such a sad excuse for an ambush would work against me?"]

If one looked closely at the places the drones had shot one would see pools of blood slowly forming.

["Your comrades are all dead. Now the question is what to do about you?"]

"Hiii! D-don't come closer!"

As the woman realized her ambush had failed she trust forward her kid, which was revealed to be a modified high caliber mortar sh.e.l.l.

["Okay calm down."]

"STOP MOVING OR I BLOW IT!"

["Okay, see? I stopped moving, now what?"]

"What do you mean now what?"

Falling into a stalemate Dax started talking with the woman.

["You're forcing me to stop moving so you can blow me up right? Then get on with it."]

"Dax!?"

"Just stop moving or I'll kill us all!"

["Kill us all? No, you'll definitely die if you blow that up, my angel friend behind me here might die unless she hides behind me, but I'll definitely survive the blast. So go on ahead and get it over with."]

With those words Dax started walking closer to the woman holding the improvised explosive device she started panicking.

"DON'T MOVE OR I'LL-"

["You'll kill us all? Stop f.u.c.king joking around. That you're holding there is a standard Rex industries 204mm high explosive fragmentation mortar with 20 kilograms of high yield RDX explosive mixed with about 200 2mm copper and iron b.a.l.l.s that are designed to heat up and melt into flesh up.o.r.n contact. Over my years I've been hit directly with more of those than I care to remember so let me tell you exactly what happens when you blow it up. First the fuse will ignite the primary charge in about half a second, which will be exactly enough time for you to regret killing yourself, but not enough time for you to do something about it, then the primary charge will ignite and generate a shockwave that'll turn your insides (and the rest of your body) to liquid killing you instantly, then as the shockwave reaches me along with the metal b.a.l.l.s it'll make me take 2 steps backwards as I endure the shockwave without injury. What you will do is not kill or incapacitate me, but slow me down about 5 seconds as I remove your charred remains from my visor.. Now let's get it over with!"]

"Hii!"

Scaring the woman with his bloodl.u.s.t, Dax created a opening that he exploited fully. Closing the range in a split second he grabbed the woman's arms and then knocked her out by smas.h.i.+ng his visor into her head.

["Explosive for EOD, ICI take care of it."]

Handing over the IED to one of the drones Dax breathed a deep sigh as he carefully laid the woman down on the ground.

"So you do have a soft side after all Dax~"

["Nope, I just can't be bothered to clean charred flesh off my armor that's all. Now let's continue on the council building."]

---

["You can't hurt me~"]

Having walked right into an ambush Alice spoke in a cheerful tone from inside her armored exoskeleton.

"f.u.c.king monster! Gha!-"

With the attached machine gun she quickly dealt with the ambush as she advanced on the with 12 drones along the western flank towards the cities very lifeblood, a vast array of magic powered greenhouses.

["Target down."]

[CONFIRMED, TARGET DOWN.]

Having dealt with the last part of the ambush Alice pulled her hand in from one of the arm controls and wiped some of the sweat that had been forming off her brows. The insides of the Rex mark 5 heavy exoskeleton was pretty comfortable, with s.p.a.ce for the slim Alice to pull her arms in from the controls in the arms of the suit, but not quite enough her to stretch her arms or back fully, but she had long since gotten used to that. Looking at the different control screens while walking on autopilot Alice reacted when a screen made a beep and switched to an aerial view of her surroundings showing multiple civilians fleeing in her direction.

["All drones hold."]

[HOLDING ON FLANK. TIGHTENING UP FORMATION, HUNKER DOWN.]

Responding to Alice's command the drones gathered up on her as some of them took a knee.

"Here they come…"

[DISPERSE NOW.]

Running from the fighting in the city center, most of the civilians were pretty frightened when they ran into Alice and the drones and almost uniformly stopped in their tacks

[DISPERS-]

["ICI shut up. Move along, I won't harm any of you."]

Interrupting ICI Alice spoke in a clam and warm voice as she waved to the civilians that froze in place for a moment before running along.

["Goodbye~"]

waving goodbye Alice a bit startled when a new warning light lit up and she heard a familiar voice.

["ICI just hit me with a warning of insubordination, care to explain?"]

"Insubordination? Who?"

["You silly. But ICI is really rigid so I'm not really after you, I just need to know what you did in case it is something bad."]

"What I did?... I stopped ICI from shouting 'DISPERSE NOW' at some civs and let them trough instead."

["Ah okay, that matches up with what I'm seeing. But it no use smiling at them, they can't see your face."]

"Okay… Wait you can see my face!?"

["All the time yeah~ I'm going, secure the greenhouses and stay put until I secure the council building, bye."]

As Dax's voice cut out Alice's exoskeleton stopped moving.

[WARNING: HIGH OPERATOR HEARTBEAT DETECTED.]

"ICI shut up."

---

"That should be the council building up ahead."

["Yeah I see it, you good?"]

"Yeah, thanks for the ambush warning."

Having cleaned up another ambush Solaris pulled her spear out of a camouflaged warrior that had almost managed to sneak up on her.

["No problem, I see all~"]

"No your creepy drones see all"

["Same thing. Let's head inside, they're waiting for us."]

Meeting minimal resistance Dax entered the heart of the Northern Republic and after navigating the myriad of hallways he entered the main council room, and was immediately meet with resistance. Reflecting a arrow meant for his head Dax shot dead the guard that fired it before greeting the remaining council members.

["I'm so glad you all gathered here for me. My name is Dax, I a.s.sume you're the clan all leaders that have remained in town.]

Being meet with silence Dax what about to repeat himself when one of the leaders spoke up.

"We heard you, and have nothing to say to you. Where is the angel that's commanding you?"

["Oh so you think Solaris is my handler? New plan, I'll just kill all of you."]

"Go ahead and try golem."

"Not so fast Dax."

Intervening it what would definitely be the clan leaders early demise Solaris walked into the room with a dignified expresion.

"Yeah listen to your master, f.u.c.king do-"

Closing the range in a split second Dax graped the clan leader by the throat and lifted him of the ground before slamming him into the nearby wall.

"Call me that again and I will beat you to death with your own f.u.c.king leg, now let's agree on your surrender before there's any need for that."

Removing his helmet Dax made a promise to the clan leader before choking him out and dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is Dax, a qiton of the Alph4 clan. I've been contracted by the 14th archangels sanctuary to suppress and stabilize your region."

Doing a light bow Dax sat down in one of the empty chairs.

"Now please call for your forces to surrender before I just decide it's easier just to wipe the rest of your territory and re settle it."

Being meet with silence once more, Dax was about to put his backup plan into function until he noticed that Solaris was ghattering all the mana in the room with a wide and cold smile on her face.

"Dax was contracted to realign the republic with our interest, as such I am only here as a simple tool. That means I refer to his judgement, and the last I heard was 'wipe the rest of your territory'~"

Spreading immense pressure out in the council room as she spread out her wings it only took the clan leaders a few seconds to cave.

"O-okay then, let's hear your demands Dax."

"My demands are to immediately cease all aggression against the 14th sanctuary and the Kingdom, second is to place me in direct control of the council for the next 10 years, and third is to hand over the 'monster'. Terms are non negotiable."

"In that case we accept the terms, light the beacon."

Having expected much worse terms what remained of the council immediately agreed.

"Wait a minute, your control Dax?"

Having heard something she didn't expect Solaris spoke up as the council members were busy with some magic tool.

"The agreement was to align the republic with the views of the sanctuary, not place it under sanctuary control. Is there a problem with that?~"

Releasing an immense amount of bloodl.u.s.t Dax put on the same kind of smile as Solaris had earlier.

"I-I guess not.."

"Good. Now where is this 'monster' I've been hearing so much about?"