278 Home 3

"... That's some overhaul."

"Yeah, they're basically gutting the entire ship to make room for new and upgraded components, including multiple newly designed things by Lazarus which are highly classified. When it's done sometime next month we're going to be deploying from this ship, but until that over 10.000 people are going to be working around the clock to upgrade her for us."

Having taken a break to watch the impressive sight of the battleships retrofit for a few hours while they acclimated to the planet's gravity, Dax's group eventually boarded a CAS-7A for transport into the 'city' proper, heading for Dax's private building near Hellwalker command and the Galactic senate.

"Wait, you own an entire building?"

"Yeah, I need to store my booze somewhere right?"

"""..."""

With his impromptu joke flying right over the head of everyone present, Dax faked a cough before giving a serious answer.

"As I handle a lot of classified files and stuff like that I needed an 'office' of sorts near Hellwalker command, hence I have the top 50 floors of a skyscraper in the area to myself. It's also turned into a sort of a storage facility for Lazarus over the years so there was quickly a need to keep the area off limits to the general populace."

"It's quieter than I remember…"

Looking out at the sea of activity with a hint of nostalgia on his face, countless of Dax's long forgotten memories came back to the surface.

"You call that quiet? Are you daft?"

"No this is actually quieter than usual. Because of the ongoing war, a lot of resources have been shifted towards the navy and military, creating a slight recession which is even felt here."

While Lilly wanted nothing more than to poke at Dax's seeming lapse in reason, Phillipa stepped in and corrected her.

"So this is quieter than usual? It all still seems unreal…"

"Don't worry Solaris, you'll get used to it quickly."

Choosing to turn in for the night and go to Hellwalker command in the morning so Dax and Phillipa could do some paperwork in the meantime, the others quickly got a taste of the luxury which was packed into the 50 floors along with countless Lazarus prototypes and documents all under Dax's name.

"... I'm in heaven. No, I've gone past that, this is a level above paradise."

Having located Dax's truly impressive bar containing spirits from all over the Galactic Empire, Lilly quickly reached nirvana as she sampled different kinds of aged alcohol until she dropped. 

"This is great~"

"Mmm~ Agreed~"

"And I used to think the sanctuaries baths were top notch, how naive I was…"

Meanwhile, Mare, Solaris and Alice had found the bath, a truly massive installation which seamlessly mixed both ancient Qiton and Avoaxian traditions and style with state of the art technology. When later asking Dax about it they would find that the bath had been constructed at Ra and Mu's suggestion from their own plans as the pair regularly spent the night there when in the capital for business.

"Terra, look at this sword!"

"Oh wow, that's awesome~"

"Truly, an impressive blade."

A strange pairing of Ifrit, Lia and Terra spent their time looking at Dax's impressive handheld weapon collection which took up an entire floor and was located right below the training floor, it was clear that this was because Dax regularly spent his free time training with countless different old and odd weapons. The sword Ifrit had found and now held with sparkling eyes was a qiton one handed, dual edged sword which had an unusual heft to it and carrying an overall simple design along with strange looking runes engraved in the blade. Of course, the collection contained more firearms than bladed weapons, but none of the collection's current explorers were interested in them.

---

Having spent a good part of the evening night exploring and playing around in Dax's compound, everybody eventually retired for the night, waking up and having a quick breakfast at first light to prepare for the long day ahead.

"We need to get you guys slightly more used to this city… Why don't we walk to Hellwalker command? It's only a bit over 2 kilometres."

"I don't see why not? But do we have time for that Phillipa?"

Wisely asking Phillipa instead of Dax who suggested the idea, Solaris had long since gotten used to him not following schedules outside of combat.

"It's fine, we're already in good time as is."

With the rest of the group also approving of the idea (with the slightly hungover Lilly being the only exception) Dax put on his Hellwalker uniform for the first time in a while and joined the others as they left his building, needless to say, all the new Hellwalkers wore their information control 'collars', with Phillipa and Dax each donning a pair of heavily toned sunglasses for a reason which would very quickly become apparent for the rest of the group.

"... Is it always like this?"

"Yeah, pretty much every time we move in large groups this tends to happen."

Even though the streets were tightly packed as one would expect of the densely packed capital, Dax and the others had no issue walking as the literal sea of people quickly parted before them. 

"It seems the 125th really has a reputation."

"Yeah it does, I still remember the times when nobody recognized the uniform, but that time is long gone by now."

Everywhere they went, the group of Hellwalkers parted the sea of people going about their daily business, it seemed like time ground to a halt wherever they went as people stopped to look with wonder at the group, although Dax didn't miss the few people who responded with fear.

(It seems like the 125th reputation has degraded… I wonder what the fuck they're doing to mess up this bad?)

Although Dax had such thoughts of the fear he encountered, he didn't really want to shown why people were starting to mistrust the Hellwalkers so fast.

"What the hell is this?"

Getting closer to Hellwalker command, the sea of parting people suddenly stopped with a large crowd which filled the entire street. Getting through the sea of people Dax was met with by a wall of Reaper drones, along with a truly ugly sight.

"Fucking bitch!"

A group of Hellwalkers Dax didn't recognize were apparently in a fight with some navy officers, the reason was seemingly a large coffee stain on one of the Hellwalker's uniforms and the course of that stain appeared to be a female navy officer currently on the ground getting kicked by said Hellwalker with the stained uniform while his fellow Hellwalkers were threatening the rest of the navy personnel who looked on at the beating with bitter looks on their faces.

"That's Rin!"

Closer examining the girl on the ground getting kicked, Solaris recognized her as the one who helped her with training aboard the battleship Ingenuity.

"That it is… Phillipa."

With a cold look on his face and an even colder voice, Dax's sight remained fixed on the Hellwalker's as he took off his white gloves and left them with his trusty subordinate.

"I have already taken control of the drones, go right ahead."

"Okay, I'll be right back."

As a gap in the wall of drones opened up, Dax quickly slipped through as he failed to hide the rage in his voice. 

"I'm ashamed that trash like you is actually in the same branch as me! How are you going to compensate me!?"

Still none the wiser of his impending doom, the Hellwalker continued kicking Rin in the stomach while completely ignoring her yelps of pain as she continued to apologize while covering her head with her arms.

"I'll do you the service of saying this so listen closely! You navy trash only exists as a cost saving measure to transport us Hellwalkers! You're disposable! Unlike me!"

"Hey, fuckface."

"WHO TH!-"

Not even getting out a full sentence as he turned to shout at the person who had suddenly insulted him out of nowhere, the Hellwalker was met with a fist the moment he turned his head. As the sound of Dax's punch landing and the Hellwalkers jaw fracturing seemed to silence everyone in the area as all attention turned to Dax who slowly walked over to Rin.

"Can you stand?"

"I-I Do- ARG!"

"Okay, don't speak. Help is here, you're safe now."

Having obviously broken some ribs and suffered immensely, just thanking her saviour was painful to Rin. Meanwhile, the other Hellwalkers seemed to snap out of their collective daze.

"You fucker!"

"It's 'Commander' or 'sir' to you."

Effortlessly sidestepping a Hellwalker's punch, Dax chastised his lack of respect at the same time as he made him puke up his last meal with a well placed knee in the stomach before an uppercut closed his mouth and knocked him to the ground at the same time.

"He got Jack!"

"Kill him!"

As the second Hellwalker of the group planted the ground face first, the ones still standing (and with all their teeth still left) made the poor decision of attempting to escalate as they all drew firearms. But Dax who had already expected such a move was way ahead of them as he had already pulled out his own pistol.

"Yeah, no."

Maintaining his cold and unfeeling expression Dax opened fire, hitting all 4 of the still standing Hellwalkers in their shoulders with a fighting level of coldheartedness and ruthless efficiency. While parts of the surrounding crowd started screaming while others fled, Dax walked up to the Hellwalker who had been kicking Rin, crouching down next to him he slapped him in the face a few times to wake him up.

"As acting commander of the 125th Hellwalkers, I hereby expel you from the core, you have 24 hours to return your weapons and turn in your badge and uniform and pay back the full amount of cash you've spent on the unit's account while in the service, failure to do any of those things will lead to a military tribunal."

"Wai!-"

Once more punching the Hellwalker in the face, this time choosing this time to shatter the side where his jaw had been still somewhat intact, Dax knocked him out one more time.

(Seems like I have my work cut out for me…)