Chapter 338 - The Emergence (3)

"Now that the defences are down I should take a closer look at the Emergence itself before the navy just nukes everything…"

Having dealt with the system wide defences that had the galactic navy stuck in a bloody stalemate like swatting away a fly, Dax decided he might as well take a look at the Emergence's main body before it disappeared. Perhaps this was some sort of whim that Ra and Mu had imparted upon him, or perhaps it was some sort of instinct to chase down and finish off the enemy properly, but something inside Dax wanted to make sure that the Emergence was good and dead before he left the Galactic Empire behind.

"IMI scan for radiation of any and all kinds, print to sensory interface."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED.]

Blinking a few times to adjust to his new vision, Dax now 'saw' everything his ship did, filtering for thermal and radioactive radiation to scan for activity of the Emergence.

"As expected a lot of heat is radiating off from the ring around the iron race's former homeworld, that would be the first place to check out."

Although the iron race was usually a terrestrial race preferring to live on the ground, most of them lived in orbital complexes called 'rings' to avoid the harsh gravity of their homeworld prior to being forced out from the system by their own creation. Closing in on the former iron race homeworld, the amount of heat radiating off of the residential ring became even more apparent, if left alone for a few more months at that level of activity, the station's radiators would burn out and whatever was inside the station would boil itself and size working.

(So it would simply stop working if we left it alone?... Well, that's slightly disappointing. I might as well stop by to take a look.)

"IMI enable overlord, no exceptions."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, ESTABLISHING TOTAL EXCLUSION ZONE AROUND CURRENT AREA, LOCKING DOWN 500 LIGHT SECONDS, NO EXCEPTIONS.]

Making it so no one would close in on the area, Dax took a shuttle down to the residential ring. Instead of even attempting to access the airlocks, Dax simply used magic to cut straight through the outer hull. As expected the main section was depressurized, and as expected it was filled with half living corpses converted into processors. Having seen it all before, Dax bȧrėly flinched at the half alive iron race people having soiled themselves in their vacuum suits that had numerous wires inserted.

(Now where is the source…)

Following the mostly organic mesh of wires, while eliminating the occasional stray Emergence drones, Dax eventually reached what seemed like a restricted part of the station, breaking down multiple secure doors before finally reaching what seemed to be a laboratory with countless wires and heavy cables running in and out of. Reaching out towards the nearby dormant servers it lit up as Dax stripped the data from it at a rapid pace.

Getting a read on what the iron race was working on just before the Emergence forced them out of the system, Dax frowned as he looked towards a room with particularly heavy looking blast doors which had been ripped open from both the inside and the outside. Walking over the corpses of multiple iron race researchers Dax entered the 3rd special isolation chamber which was the Emergence's birthplace.

"... Shit… Fucking hell!"

Feeling an inescapable amount of rage and hate building up inside him, this was the moment Dax was finally convinced.

"Fuck war and fuċk what it makes us do! FUCK THE EMPIRE!"

"Never again…"

These trivial affairs like pride and national interest produced unparalleled suffering and bloodshed, Dax accepted this as a fact he could do nothing about, this is the way things always had been and always would be, but he would no longer have any part in it.

"The ship has locked on to us, it appears fully intent to fire on us!"

"What the hell is up with this AI!?"

With Dax having eliminated the last of hostile resistance, Admiral Simmons had ordered his fleet to move in and take control of the system, but for some reason, Dax's ship refused to let them close to what Simmons believed to be the Emergences' core.

[WARNING, YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER A TOTAL EXCLUSION ZONE, ANY FURTHER ENCROACHMENT ON THIS AREA WILL LEAD TO YOUR DESTRUCTION, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.]

"This is Admiral Simmons of the galactic navy, registration 000858713! I request urgent access to the planet inside your current area of exclusion, stand down!"

[ACCESS DENIED.]

"I said stand down you fuċkɨnġ tin can, what's so hard to understand!?"

With IMI cutting off communications, Admiral Simmons slammed his fist against his chair in frustration before turning to one of his officers.

"Target that ship and prepare to engage!"

"But sir, that's a friendly unit."

"I don't fuċkɨnġ care! It has repeatedly disrespected direct orders from a superior officer, prepare to engage!"

[Now now Simmons, there's no need for that. I've lifted the restrictions, you're free to enter the area.]

Intervening before Simmons got himself and a whole lot of navy personnel killed, Dax directly bypassed the security of Simmons' flagship and opened up communications.

"Dax! What the fuċk are you doing!?"

[I just had some stuff to take care of, sorry about that.]

"Sir!?"

"What!?"

While Simmons was nearly blowing a fuse talking to Dax who was grossly disregarding the chain of command, one of his officers intervened and pointed to the planet which was the root of the current disagreement to begin with.

"..."

While Simmons was initially outraged he quickly turned speechless as he looked at the former iron race homeworld turn into a ball of molten rock as multiple anti matter torpedoes detonated to apocalyptic effect.

"... What did you just do Dax?"

[I finished off the Emergence, you're welcome.]

Dax had seemingly decided on his own to nuke the planet, something he was very much not cleared to do.

"That's a direct breach of orders! Are you aware of what you just did!?"

[Yeah, I finished this war, you're welcome. Also, don't fuċkɨnġ order me around like I'm your subordinate. As the commander of the 125th, I have executive freedom to act as I see fit, if you have a complaint with that I suggest you take that up with the minister of special war affairs.]

---

And just like that, the war of annihilation ended with the Galactic Empire emerging as the victor and sole survivor left standing on the galactic stage. As the end of the war was announced, celebration erupted throughout the Empire, but things were quite different in the galactic senate. With the end of a lengthy war came a major restructure of the entire Empire, budget cuts, reorganization and restructuring of not just the countless branches of the military, but also the Empire's entire economy.

But alas, all that stuff was left to the politicians and bureaucrats of the Empire, for the people who had fought in the war, it was a time for celebration.

"Dax! Let's try this place over there!"

Having agreed to take some time to celebrate and experience the capital with the girls before leaving it behind Dax found himself being dragged around town by the girls, significantly Ke who was experiencing the capital for the first time, and Lilly who simply wanted to get shitfaced and sample as much of the capital's food as possible. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click <a href="#%!d(string=11701049006479405)/the-emergence-(3)_%!d(string=51612683283257473)">#%!d(string=11701049006479405)/the-emergence-(3)_%!d(string=51612683283257473)</a> for visiting.

"Okay okay, just slow down a bit Lilly, you too Ke."

With the two of them caught up in the surrounding celebrations, Dax's words mostly fell on deaf ears as they continued to drag him around to stall after stall while Alice and Solaris mostly kept back and talked with Lux, Iris and Mare who had joined them for the celebrations.

"It is nice to finally meet you, commander Dax. Although the current situation doesn't allow for it, I would love to have at least shake your hand for what you've done for the Empire."

All of a sudden all sound cut out as the surrounding cheerful crowds faded out of Dax's vision, instead he now focused on a single woman who had spoken directly to him from across the street. The person in question was undoubtedly a qiton elder, from the thin presence alone Dax immediately judged her as a clear threat, but as Dax went into alert he quickly noticed countless more qitons in the surrounding area.

"What does the 89th want with me? Or rather what does the administrative AI want with me?"

Just like the special counsel had black operations units under their direct control, so did the administrative AI, chief among those were the 89th special operations committee, a unit consisting of qiton elders which served the administrative AI with absolute obedience if asked a member would kill their own family without hesitation, and sometimes they did.

"Oh how perceptive, as expected of the renowned 125th commander. We're here to serve a warrant. Commander Dax, you have been accused of treason, please follow along willingly."

By now Dax's companions had noticed something was wrong, even Ke and Lilly had overcome their excitement as they sensed Dax's poorly suppressed bloodlust was starting to leak out.

"And what if I say no?"

"Then I am sadly authorized to terminate you and all your companions, please confirm if that is the case."

"You think I would let you?"

Starting to generate mana, Dax went fully into combat mode, and his companions quickly followed suit, even though only Lux had spotted the enemy, and only bȧrėly.

"Oh, so that's the so called mana, how scary. As it was predicted it would come to this please pay a little attention to my briefcase."

Noticing the qiton elder was carrying a miniaturized anti matter warhead, Dax realized his current situation.

(So they're saying: come with us or your companions die?... That's fuċkɨnġ cold, as expected of the 89th.)

Even if multiple anti matter warheads detonated right next to him, Dax could find a way to survive it, but he would have no way of protecting all the girls, basically the 89th, or rather the administrative AI had decided that it was okay to nuke the capital if it meant getting Dax to play nice.

"... I take it you have more of those?"

"You're quick on the uptake, as expected as the leader of the 125th."

With the presence disappearing immediately afterwards, Dax realized he had truly fuċkėd up, there was nothing he could do but comply.

"Fuck."

"Dax?"

Still not completely understanding what was going on, Lilly understood that there was something wrong.

"Don't interfere with this. Please."

As numerous police units stormed the area and arrested Dax, the cheerful atmosphere of the downtown celebration was quickly ruined.