261 N generation warfare 2

"--- And then instead of sleeping I had Iris help me develop a working prototype for the swarm type drone I called you at 2 about, and you're not listening to me are you, Dax?"

"... No, I'm not, sorry. I'm just a bit distracted because of what I was doing last night and it is not the reason you're thinking about so please put that gun away!"

In the middle of talking about further development options with Ra, Dax somehow managed to zone out as he thought about what had happened last night, spending all night with Alice, Lilly and Solaris he had explained every single action and consideration he took when he fought the elder along with his switching strategies while going over what he would change if he had more information at the time and what he would have done differently. Surprisingly none of the girls fell asleep doing that time and they even showed genuine interest, apparently, the three of them all had a desire to grow stronger so they could fight together with Dax instead of just waiting for him to come back and hope he came back unharmed.

"So they want to fight alongside you?... That's dumb, there's no way they could keep up with a pureblood qiton with your amount of experience"

"Yeah, you would think that… But they are all extremely fast learners, I think they'll be ready for actual combat as a part of the 125th within 5 years, 2 or even 1 year if they're dedicated enough."

"... If you say so."

Hearing Dax vouch for the girls Ra was taken aback slightly with his behaviour, Dax had changed significantly while she hadn't had her eyes on her, which at the same time made Ra happy that he had grown emotionally, but slightly sad she hadn't been there to witness it.

"I can see you're distracted so I'll keep this brief then, what do you want to go for?"

"General combat effectiveness and rapid deployment, I also want that 50 mill vehicle mounted anti barrier rifle operational as my gut feeling tells me I'll need it down the line. Let's have this elder thing wrapped up within 2 weeks tops, after that, I want to get back home and get things under control, also I need to reclassify myself as alive instead of KIA, having that on my profile isn't that great for my wages."

Outlining his general course of action for the current and next actions Ra started pouting out of nowhere.

"And are you bringing those girls back with you?"

It wasn't that Ra didn't like the girls, but she hadn't approved of them yet, as such she remained on guard.

"Yeah I am, otherwise they wouldn't even let me leave this place. Also, Mare, Lia, Ifrit, Iris and the twins are most likely coming along."

"Are you sure you don't want to take more along? We are going on a tourist trip after all."

"I did want to take Chad, Xi and her parents with me but they have responsibilities within their clan they need to deal with."

"You guys figured out how to make mana materialize right? Wouldn't that be a great weapon against the Emergence?... I don't know if you've seen but Solaris and Ifrit are walking strategic class weapons."

Presented with something she hadn't thought of, Ra couldn't oppose Dax any longer, after all, the Emergence most likely couldn't adapt to magic spells in an amount of time that would matter.

Basically, mana might be the countermeasure the galactic Empire needed to turn the war.

"Then for our short term goals, you want me to speed up deployment for drone compatible versions of anti elder weapons and the 50 mill?"

"Yeah, also if you could add an extra set of manatech armour to the queue it would be perfect."

"What the hell would you need that for?"

Ra had expected that just Phillipa, Lux and Dax were going to fight, thus she had already prepared next generation amour for them and couldn't imagine what she would need an extra set for.

"For Ifrit, they are a resource I feel like I can't just leave on the bench."

"Ifrit? Really? I think they are just super annoying and not that helpful."

"Yeah they're annoying all right, but I've gotten used to it after having them stuck in my head for a long time, besides, Ifrit is a honest to god, actually demon. Having them in a battle is nice."

"If you say so, I'll try and squeeze an extra set of manatech armour into the production queue somewhere. What kind of specialization do you have in mind for them?"

"Considering that it is Ifrit we're talking about… Just go for maximum destructive output and they'll love it."

"... 'Maximum destructive output', huh? Okay, I can do that."

---

In the blink of an eye, a full week passed. In that time Dax was hardly stationary for more than 15 minutes as he went back and forth between orbit and different forward operating bases together with Phillipa and Lux in preparation for the invasion of the elder controlled imperial continent while also personally overseeing test and deployment of the new N generation manatech equipped drones, or just N drones for short.

If all that was not enough, Dax also had to appear at a united powers summit where he presented legislation that would lay the groundwork for creating an international democratic organization that would eventually be integrated into the galactic empire as a special territory. With all those things to do, Dax understandably didn't have any time to talk with or entertain the girls but for once they didn't seem to mind all that much, most likely because they had been informed on the elder's true identity. It would seem that the fact that the elders were former qitons who had given up their own bodies in some twisted attempt to become the perfect weapon disturbed everyone, but Dax (and Lux to a lesser extend) honestly couldn't care less, the way the two had been raised and trained to battle the identity of their enemies didn't matter in the slightest, while as for Dax specifically, he was planning to figure out exactly what had led his kin to do such a thing by examining their cerebral tissue.

After he had annihilated every single one of them, of course.

Plans for the future aside, Dax was currently inspecting the latest generation N drone schematic and going over a host of its different capabilities and systems, if it still had any kind of flaws or shortcomings, this was the last chance for Ra and Mu to overhaul the entire inventory of ready drones before the start of the invasion.

"So? Anything that looks to be not up to standard?"

"Not so far no."

While Dax was going over some of the last documents at home in his apartment, Lilly took the chance to talk with him for the first time in a week.

"Then why do you look so troubled?"

"Because they're too perfect, that's the problem."

"Huh? How is that possible? 'perfect' is the perfect state no?"

As Lilly continued the conversation, Dax figured he had earned a little break as he put down the tablet that had been glued to his hand for the last few days, pressing a button on the corner of the frame which switched the blueprints he was currently looking at from 2d to a 3d augmented reality projection, making Lilly put on a pair of AR interface glasses so she could see what he was doing.

"The new N generation drones are a completely new design line consisting of 4 distinct units, not only that, but there's not even a single internal component that has ever been used before. Normally a new generation weapon like this would have at least 20% of its structure constructed of systems, components and modules which have already been tested, that way it is easier to iron out any kinks found after deployment by relying on those already tested components."

Reaching out and clicking on one of the larger N drones simply named, the ��carrier', Dax tapped the hologram and made the drone disassemble into its components.

"Although Ra and Mu already have conducted live testing under combat like scenarios, those tests can not completely simulate the real thing. Right now there's a possibility that I'll have a worst case scenario on my hands with no way to fix it."

"I see, that sure sounds troubling."

Basically, Dax had no absolute guarantee that all the parts of this brand new system would play together nice when it became time for live combat, normally a system on the scale as this one would normally have a small number of theoretical kinks that Dax could spot from the documents, thus he would have some idea of what was breaking if it came to that, but after spending the last 22 hours going over these designs he hadn't found a single one, thus his gut continued to tell him that he had to check it over one more time.

(So he's nervus? Really?)

Coming to that internal conclusion Lilly seriously doubted herself for a moment, she was sure of her hypothesis when she looked back at Dax to see that he had already gone back to looking over the blueprints and flowcharts while scratching his hair in annoyance which could only seem form reviewing the same page for the 205th time.

(Honestly…. He really is a child sometimes, or most of the time actually?)

Making herself aware of a realization about Dax she had overlooked so far, Lilly was about to sigh deeply when a teasing smile instead started forming on her face.

(Well, that is part of his charm so it's fine~)

Hopping down from the chair opposed to Dax, Lilly walked around to his back without Dax even noticing him, something which only served to further build evidence for her hypothesis, thus widening her teasing smile further.

Collecting the ambient mana in her hands, Lilly gently set off of the floor and floated up above Dax, cutting off the supply of mana to her spell gravity once more took hold of the tiny elver as she fell down on top of Dax, landing on his lap and instantly pressed her advantage as she moved her eyes right in front of Dax's, bringing the pairs face's only a few centimetres from each other.

"So, in other words, you're doubting your sister's capabilities? Good thing they Mu gave me her number on that 'cellphone' of hers, I'm sure she'll love to hear about that~"

"Tha-"

"Yeah, that's exactly how I see it."

"..."

Realizing that saying anything more would only serve to dig his own grave deeper, Dax shut his mouth and considered flicking Lilly's smug looking face for a few seconds, eventually deciding against it as he realized that her words held some amount of truth behind them.

"Now that's a good puppy~ I love it when you just shut up like that, it makes my body tingle~"

(This little!)

Being mocked like that by Lilly Dax was just about to snap back when he finally calmed down, instead stealthily wrapping an arm around the smug looking elver's back without her noticing.

"Now that I've calmed you down puppy your master here deserves a reward~ Come on, don't be shy about it~"

In her rush to claim victory, Lilly had forgotten something important about her opponent, the more pissed off Dax was, the more cunning he would be. It was first when Dax matched Lilly's own smile she realized her error, making her escape too late as she was already captured by Dax.

"Okay then, I'll be a good puppy~"

"Now Dax wait just a second,-"

"Nope~"

"... I went too far, I'm sorry. Therefore please have mercy!"

"... Nope~"