[UNCHANGED.]

"Okay… Prep for takeoff at the scheduled time, I need to be home in time for Terra's training."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED.]

Half a year had pa.s.sed since the fall of the Northern Republic. In that time Dax had been busy stabilizing the area trough new reforms and providing know how to rebuild the country. Haven obtained control over the high council Dax immediately started by gathering up the entire population in the capital, and then airlifted in heavy machinery to construct much needed infrastructure.

"Dax about the recent decision you made in the council-"

"Decisions are final."

"Yeah yeah I know, I just wondered why the new greenhouse couldn't be placed closer to the town."

"Because seismology scans show that the ice there is unstable, that's why I'm putting off construction in that area until it can be stabilized."

"O-okay?.."

"If we build stuff there it will break the ice, and a lot of people will die."

"Okay, I'll relay that to the other council members."

Finis.h.i.+ng up his talks Dax left the central council building.

"THERE HE IS!"

"GET HIM!"

Only to run into an angry mob outside.

"For f.u.c.ks sake… I have 10 minutes, make it count."

Today was the 10th time this pattern had repeated, the people of the republic were nothing if but extremely stubborn, but Dax didn't really hate that about them. Walking a bit away from the council building as the mob stormed him Dax planted himself as they charged him, and then started beating the s.h.i.+t out of them.

"And that's 10 minutes.. I haven't broken anything so show up for work tomorrow or I'm cutting your food rations."

Leaving a sea of incapacitated people behind Dax made his way to the edge of the city, where a small compound had been constructed. Entering the compound Dax boarded the waiting CAS-A7 landing craft that came alive with a roar and lifted off from the compacted ice landing pad and quickly climbed into a ballistic trajectory heading towards the capital of the Kingdom.

[ACCENT BURN COMPLETED, NOW CONDUCTING FINAL ADJUSTMENT BURNS.]

Getting up from his seat Dax floated around in zero gravity and made his was to the c.o.c.kpit inside the craft.

"Open blast s.h.i.+elding please."

[OPENING c.o.c.kPIT BLAST s.h.i.+ELDING, STANDBY.]

As the view out of the c.o.c.kpit changed from camera feeds projected on the inside of the heavy blasts.h.i.+lding meant to protect the pilot in combat operations to a direct view out through a thin layer of thin heated gla.s.s Dax strapped himself into the pilot seat.

"Abort adjustment burns and give me full control."

[ADJUSTMENT BURNS CANCELED: 24 MANEUVER NODES ERASED. YOU HAVE CONTROL.]

"I have control."

Looking around on various monitors Dax inspected the landing craft as he checked the functionality of the aircraft by sending it into a free spin and recovering it after a few seconds.

"Up power to translation motor #34 by 35%"

[ADJUSTMENTS CONFIRMED.]

"Good.. Now time for some combat exercise. ICI give me some virtual targets."

[CAS-A7 NOW ENTERING SIMULATION MODE, WEAPON SYSTEM LOCKED: READY FOR VIRTUAL EXERCISE.]

"Time to knock off some rust."

Killing time until he entered the atmosphere again Dax eventually landed outside the city of Kingstead, capital of the central Kingdom.

"What's the status of the patient? Show me please."

Having made his way back home, Dax immediately went upstairs to one of the rooms. The room was almost frozen in time, except for a piece of heavy machinery that had been placed where the bed had been.

"Good evening Alice."

Suspended in a transparent liquid Alice still had a large hole in her chest that was covered by hightech gray medical dressing with multiple wires and cables.

[STATUS UNCHANGED, NEURAL DEGRADATION AT 5.4%.]

6 months after her injury there was still visible burn marks all over her body, but the worst damage had been done to Alice's brain. As the AD-LBD HEAT round had hit her exoskeleton and detonated it had created a cone of heated plasma that punched right through Alice's chest, but more importantly it had heated the cramped insides of the exoskeleton to oven like temperatures in a split second, and if not for Dax's immediate actions that would have been the end of her. Having treated the worst of the decay seconds after it had happened the neurons had been mostly undamaged, but she had been put into a deep coma while the complex repair by countless automated nanomachines and small medical drones floating around in clear liquid. Alice's chestnut hair had mostly been burned off, and replaced by new pure white synthetic hair.

"I should have f.u.c.king seen it…"

Even if he would never admit it to anyone Dax still blamed himself for what happened to Alice. Even if it was his second in command that snuck up on him, Lux was mostly a walking corpse at that point, if he had only pulled the drones back in after pacifying Iris, if he had only been more alert, if he had only had a ready rifle, if he had only-

"Dax you're back, any changes?"

"Sadly not, the repair will be done in about a month but then it could take anywhere from a few months to several years for her to wake up."

"Okay.. Let's go train."

Every day they would repeat that pattern, Terra would act surprised that Dax was home, she would ask how Alice was doing, and then she would do her best to hide the disappointment and sadness while asking Dax to join her in training.

"Too slow, focus!"

"Gha!-"

Catching Terra's jab with a truly brutal counter Dax knocked her to the ground with a force that would normally have killed a first cla.s.s knight, and followed it up with a kick that she only barely managed to guard and sent her flying into the nearby wall.

"Get fast or die!"

"I know!"

Rus.h.i.+ng to her feet Terra charged Dax and hit him with a kick to the head.

"That was better!-"

Blocking her kick with his arm Dax showed a slight smile.

"- But you traded force for speed!"

Pulling in Terra's leg towards him Dax formed a fist with his flesh and blood hand and moved towards her with a speed that would almost certainly kill Terra, no matter where he hit.

[MATCH OVER, WINNER: DAX. TRAINEE RATING: B-]

Stopping his fist right before it hit Terra in the chest ICI announced the end of the sparing fight.

"A b minus rating?"

"You were clearly distracted. But still that one kick was really good, what's bothering you?"

"I just feel like we've been doing the same thing every day in and out forever."

"That's because we have, repet.i.tion makes perfect."

"And so you say every time…"

"Okay then, wanna take a sneak peek at the next part of your training?"

"If it means escaping from this fever dream I have were I keep training forever and wake up one day as the most macho bodybuilder in this world then yes, I would very much like to start the next part of my training."

"Then how are you with negative g maneuvers?"

"With what?"

Hearing words she did not completely understand, Terra was understandably confused, but Dax just ignored that.

"Then not so good, make sure to bring lots of paper bags~"

"Okay?"

"That will be all for tonight then, make sure you get lots of rest."

Leaving the confused Terra behind with those words Dax went on with his night, and his first visit was to the workshop.

"Welcome."

"And good morning."

"Or good evening would perhaps be more appropriate."

"I've slowly been making progress."

"Good evening Iris."

"I still feels strange that you call me that…"

"But you are Iris, at least as close to that individual as you can be."

Iris was dead, having been shot in the head by a high caliber round she had died instantly. But Dax had noticed a source of interference coming from her copse, which revealed itself to be a fully functioning ICI unti fused to her spine with the use of healing magic, a result of having been experimented on by her clan from her early childhood as she had been weak form birth.

"But I'm not her."

"Nope, legally you're a clone, but you're her trough and trough. Every single neuron was perfectly restored form the backup stored in your spine, as such your ego has been perfectly restored, so you are the same."

"That makes no sense."

"At all."

"I don't understand."

"No it doesn't, but only if you chose to think about it that way. I won't try and talk to you about the concept of a soul or something spiritual as that, but there are several theoretical papers that state that one's 'ego' or 'soul' are linked to one's precise brain signature, not the physical form itself."

"That is also illogical."

"Completely so."

"That's why the answer is not to think about it, can you show me your progress?"

Switching gears Dax walked past Iris to a table filled with papers detailing advanced calculations and a enginerical drawing detailing some sort of handheld railgun prototype.

"The handheld prototype has pa.s.sed the final stage of theoretical development."

"We will start building a prototype tomorrow."

"We are expecting a final prototype will be ready and working in about 5 years."

"If current state of development holds."

"Good work~"

"Mmm~"

---

"So what are we doing?"

Having followed Dax to the CAS-A7 Stinger Terra was slightly confused about what they were going to do that day.

"Please step inside."

With those words the blast door closed behind Terra as she started hearing the engines warming up through the hull.

"So what is happening?"

Still not understanding Dax's intent Terra was still confused, as the internal hull of the Stinger was completely bare, lacking the seats that were normally present.

"Please strap in."

On Dax's mark a chair popped up from the floor.

"Okay?"

Still not really trusting Dax based on the size of his smile Terra nervously sat down in the chair, and was immediately restrained.

"Welcome to the extreme maneuver conditioning course, or as I call it 'the vomit comet'~"

[MAX G TAKEOFF CONFIRMED.]

Locking to the floor with his magnetic boots the Stinger took off in an extremely violent manner as it immediately started climbing vertically.

[MAX Q.]

Pulling almost 10 g Terra struggled to breathe as her vision started turning dark.

"And flip."

[FLIPPING.]

right before Terra pa.s.sed out the Stinger flipped and broke all its speed in about 20 seconds, then started pulling negative g maneuvers, forcing the blood that was forced towards Terra's feet into her head, along with a few other things.

"URG!-"

"Gross."

Covering Terra's mouth with a paper bag like he had done the exact thing millions of times, Dax escaped the direct wrath of the 'vomit comet'.

"Suspend extreme maneuver conditioning course."

[RECOVERING DIVE, RETURNING ON COURSE.]

After 5 more minutes of continuing extreme maneuvers Terra had pa.s.sed out, and then the Stinger returned on a normal course, that is until Terra woke up again and the whole thing repeated.