252 Licking wounds

"... You did what?"

"As I said, I accelerated the elder to a speed of 29.8 kilometres a second retrograde relative to the orbital plane."

Sitting at a bioprinter in the transport bay of the Juggernaut getting his arm reattached to his body Dax once more repeated what he had told Solaris who had been pestering him since the moment he had returned together with the now headless Ifrit.

"Explain it properly so I can understand!"

While Dax was busy taking enjoyment in Solaris' anger, Iris somehow managed to sneak up on the pair.

"He threw it into the sun."

"Which would explain why the Juggernaut's offensive grav drive is in such bad shape."

"It's as if you have no regard for the equipment you use Dax."

"Honestly…"

"But that also explains why the Juggernaut was given to Lux and not you."

With Iris mercilessly destroying Dax's fun he was forced to turn his attention to her.

"First of all: I wanted to tell her that, so rude. Secondly: If you don't use equipment to its limits then what's the point of having it? And finally: It was my own decision to hand over the Jug to Lux, she and her former team were way more CQC oriented than the rest of the 125th, so it made sense for her to use it."

Defending his reasonings to Iris the young girl just looked at him for a few seconds without any kind of expression on her face, then just before she was about to leave the two lovebirds alone she remembered what she had forgotten to tell Dax.

"Oh, and Lux has been pestering us constantly for information about the raid."

"She said that she can't contact you for some reason and thus keeps pressing us for answers instead."

"Something which we find very tiring to handle while trying to analyze the mana generator together with Ling and Ying."

"That's all we wanted to say."

"You two can go back to making out now."

"Th!- Y-you're wrong!"

With a last casual remark, Iris once more returned to the crew quarters of the Juggernaut where the mana generator was currently housed, leaving the flustered angel and grinning Dax behind. Seeing the sorry state Solaris was reduced to by Iris' idle remark, Dax breathed a knowing sigh before placing his only remaining hand on the dejected angel's shoulder.

"... The second you answer her like that you have already lost."

"I don't want to hear that from you of all people!"

-

After receiving a fist filled with love Dax spent some more time soothing Solaris before he retired to the cramped commander's office and contacted Lux who immediately accepted his call.

"Yo, what's up?"

[... Don't give me that crap, how did the mission go?]

"We closed the gate, retrieved the generator and killed one elder with only minor injuries to show for it. What about your mission? How did it go?"

[... Did you kill an elder? How the fuck did you manage that?]

"I used the Jug's offensive drive to throw it into the sun. With no way of altering its trajectory, it should start burning up in a few hours."

Being met with an unusually long silence in response to his explanation Dax expected a long sigh followed by a lengthy reprimand from Lux, but strangely that didn't happen.

[Damn, I wanted to be the first to kill one of those things… Did you burn out the Jug's drive?]

"Just a bit. But don't worry, it is military equipment, I'll get it up and running again in no time… So, how did your mission go?"

[Poorly. Although we have no casualties everyone had a turn in the bioprinter and Eos had a serious mental breakdown. I'll send over the log.]

It was pretty self evident from Lux's tone of voice that she blamed herself for the result of the mission, and even trough Dax as her commanding officer was supposed to reprimand her for the mistakes she had made leading her mission, Dax simply found himself unable to do so.

"I'm glad everyone made it out of there alive, good job surviving all that. Have you told Alice about Terra yet?"

While 2 of the 3 simultaneous missions had gone somewhat okay, the recon mission into the elder occupied imperial continent had ended in disaster, not a single scout had made it back, even 2 weeks after the supposed 1 week mission had started.

[Not yet, I don't know how to tell her.]

"Then let me do it, I already have to tell Solaris that the two angels who practically raised her are also both presumed KIA at this point in time…"

[It's going to be okay after some time, they are tougher than it seems. Just make sure to deliver the news to them gently.]

"I know that, dense as I am I'm not going to deliver the news with a joke or something like that."

[It is good to see you have grown somewhat.]

With a strained laugh from Lux following her sarcastic comment silence once more filled the call, it was as if recent events had served to pull the father daughter pair apart in a way that couldn't be repaired again.

"When are you back at the central kingdom?"

[In about 36 hours, you?]

"We're due for reentry in 12 hours. I'll see you back home."

[Sure.]

Ending the call there Lux breathed a deep sigh, laying all around her, the rest of her team was fast asleep, still completely exhausted from the mission they had been on.

"Home, huh… I wonder if we even have one when we finally return to the galactic empire, not that Dax seems to mind that of course, as long as he has a war to fight he's happy..."

With that final depression taught voiced out loud Lux also felt drowsiness overtake her, so she silently drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, Dax had called Solaris into the cramped commander's quarters. Initially, Solaris was completely red in the face, but after seeing how Dax acted she started calming down.

"Dax, what's wrong?"

"I recently reestablished contact with Kingstead and got an update on the other missions… The scouting mission failed, while what I know right now is limited it seems that there are no survivors."

"W-what are you saying?"

Obviously shaken by those news Solaris didn't seem to understand what Dax was saying at first, this was something Dax had seen happen plenty of times, after all, this was not even close to being the first time he had been the one to break these kinds of news.

"Terra, as well as Hemera and Apollo are missing presumed dead. It has been a week since they were supposed to come back from the imperial continent but we haven't found them yet."

Leaving no room for Solaris to escape from reality Dax clearly stated the facts as they currently stood.

"... I see. Would you please leave me alone for a moment?"

With a quiet and almost completely lifeless voice, Solaris barely managed to squeeze those words out as her eyes fell to the floor.

"I sorry Solaris, but I won't."

"I SAID LEAVE!"

Flaring in anger Solaris' wings spread out as mana started to rush around her without any apparent form of control behind it, the berserk mana instantly started tearing the compact commander's quarters apart while Dax instantly suffered countless cuts all over his body.

But still, he didn't leave Solaris alone.

"I won't."

Staying calm and collected Dax put himself in the enraged angel's way and without any sort of regard, Solaris strengthened her body with magic before she punched him in the chest as she kept screaming.

"LEAVE! WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE!?"

"Because I promised myself I would be here for you."

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

As Solaris kept screaming she continued to punch Dax, hitting him anywhere from square in the face to his gut with punches strong enough to bend steel, but still Dax didn't leave her. Gradually Solaris' rage started to subside, instead replaced with grief and sadness while her punches slowly started to lose the strength that was behind them.

"I know I'm terrible at these sorts of things, but even if I'm physically and chemically unable to sympathize with how you're feeling right now I promised myself that I would remain here with you, I heard from my sisters that when normal people feel sad it helps to have someone who cares for them around."

Placing his hands gently on Solaris' cheeks Dax lifted up her face as he gave her a reassuring smile as he carefully wiped away her tears that kept flowing at a steady pace.

"Even if you tell me to leave I'm pretty sure you broke some of my bones just now, I wouldn't be smart to try and move before they heal up."

"Why are you always so unfair in these situations!?"

���Sorry, I'll make up for it at some point, I promise."

Embracing Solaris in a tender hug, Dax stayed next to her until she stopped crying, then he just kept on holding her until it was time for the Juggernaut to make reentry.