280 Internal affairs 2

"In the 54 years I've been police chief of this section of the capital, I've catalogued about 1.154 accounts of murder which have been wiped under the carpet, along with those there are serval accounts of drug and weapon trafficking which I've investigated together with my colleagues in the military police but we've never been able to make a single arrest in those cases."

Glancing at the senior investigators who had also gathered for the briefing, Dax saw bitter expressions when Hort talked about the countless cases which had been iced over the years, it seemed to be even more than what Phillipa's early investigations had found.

"You've worked with the MP's? How come there's no record of that?"

"Because the entire investigation was iced by the special counsel after it was found that members of the navy might be involved with it. They said it would be too much bad press if the public found out that the very force protecting them from the Emergence were also criminals dealing in drugs, weapons, and even slaves."

Surfing at his boss' explanation, one of the senior investigators didn't like having either Phillipa or Dax in the room.

"What the boss is saying is that you bastards get a free pass because society needs you, for the moment at least."

"Tough shit, seeing as you 'civilized' people don't want to get your mitts dirty this is what happens. It's no secret that the Hellwalkers are the only ones still deploying live ground units, the rest of you just hide behind your swarms of drones like the cowards you are."

"What the fuck di-"

"That's enough Robert."

Holding up a hand to stop his subordinate from getting himself killed, Hort addressed Dax after making sure Robert had calmed down.

"I would ask you not to demean my subordinates commander, I've worked with these people for a long time, I can assure you none of these fine men is cowards."

"Then don't fucking compare us to criminals, we might not need to follow the law when operating but we do have our principles as an elite unit."

Stating where each of them stood on their own beliefs, the talks were about to break down when Phillipa faked a cough to get the room's attention.

"Luckily we're all professionals here, so we don't need to like each other to cooperate. From the information we extracted I've managed to identify 58 different addresses that need closer investigation, let's divide and conquer. Hopefully, we'll come out of this with a lot of dead 'Hellwalkers'."

-

"Excuse me, can I order now?"

"Ah, yeah…"

(... Am I that unusual?)

"Yes, sorry about that!"

"... At least they want to serve you in the first place."

Meanwhile, Lilly who sat beside Solaris also let out a deep sigh as she took a sip of the beer she had to show her Hellwalker id to get a hold of. Lilly's small figure and… 'Lacking' features meant that a lot of people had mistaken her for a child, something which was outright infuriating the first 50 times it happened, but now she was just starting to get tired. Sure, the bar she was currently visiting together with Solars had an impressive selection which almost matched Dax's collection and the interior was gorgeous, but the attention she was getting as a Hellwalker and being mistaken as a child at a bar was not welcome. 

(Honestly, these people have no sense for my body's hidden charm, I'm not a child.)

While Solaris and Lilly were bar hopping, Terra, Lia, Alice, and Mare were out and about sightseeing.

"... That's tall."

"Mmm."

"Says here that it's apparently an orbital elevator, it goes all the way up to space."

"And way past that too, the total height of the structure is 400 kilometres…"

Standing in front of one of the larger orbital elevators in the Galactic Empire they were all stunned, simply attempting to look up and find the top of it made them dizzy. Every single person from the world of magic remembered when they met Dax or Lux and learned that they didn't have magic, with the notable exception of Mare they all remembered looking down on them to some extent, oh how wrong they had all been.

"If anything, mana has limited our development…"

Looking at how Dax's world had developed, it was clear to see how lacking mana would force them towards the level they had reached now. What would you do if you got injured? If you had magic you would just heal the injury, but without it what could you do? You would learn how to avoid injury, you would look into why some injuries were more dangerous than others you would start to learn about medicine, from there it was just exponential growth.

"I wouldn't say it 'limited' us per se, if anything it made us vastly stronger than the people of this world, without their technology and tools they would be way worse off than us."

"True…"

While Alice and Terra had their deep philosophical and existential discussion, Lia suddenly felt like someone was directing bloodlust in their direction. Looking towards Mare for confirmation, she could see that her fellow beastkin was already alert from the movements of her ears alone, but just like Lia, her impressive senses weren't able to pick up on the direction or distance to the threat. Glancing around the somewhat packed plaza where couples and families were enjoying their free time together with excited tourists like themselves, Lia also had a hard time locating the threat.

Although, the fact that she couldn't locate the person directing faint bloodlust towards her also told her a great deal about the cupid.

(While they're not on the same level as Lux or Dax, judging by the fact that I'm able to sense them this easily they aren't simple pushovers either…)

"We have Hellwalker imitations nearby."

Speaking in her native language while keeping a bright and cheerful tone of voice, Lia alerted the others to what she and Mare had detected.

"Mmm, there are at least 5 of them switching on and off with each other. They have been following us for a while."

While Lia's sense of hearing was first class, Mare surpassed her in overall ability to detect bloodlust and ill will, so she was able to easier pick out the sources of bloodlust directed towards her.

"Well, we're still in public, hopefully, they're not dumb enough to… Shit."

Instantly wishing she could eat her own words, Terra breathed a deep sigh when she realized they had been surrounded by a dozen or so 'tourists' already.

"What's the rules of engagement?"

"Don't fire unless fired on."

With a quick exchange in her native language, Alice and Terra returned to their neutral expressions when the first one of the 'tourists' approached them.

"Can I help you with something?"

Stepping out in front of the group, Terra showed a bright smile as she asked the 20 something year old man wearing a large backpack the reason for him approaching them.

"Ah, yes thank you for your time miss Hellwalker, can I ask what kind of implants those eyes are? I find them really beautiful."

"They are Lazarus."

Answering bluntly to the tourist's rude question, Terra's smile disappeared as her crimson eyes started glowing slightly.

"Ah! Lazarus? Only the best for Hellwalkers I guess… More cash for me when I gouge them out from your copse!~"

Out of nowhere the man suddenly lunged at Terra with a knife he had hidden in his sleeve, clearly aiming to slice her throat. Although the man moved quickly like a skilled assassin, Terra had long since seen the attack coming and blocked the knife with her bare hand, gripping the blade without cutting herself.

"Too bad you can't spend cash when you're dead."

Watching panic spread out over the man's face when she blocked his attack, Terra easily snapped the steel blade in half by only applying the tiniest amount of pressure, she confidently stepped forward and crushed the assassins outstretched foot as she grasped the blade of his broken knife, driving in through the assassins eye socket and killing him instantly. While Terra responded to the one who had approached her, Alice drew the service pistol she had gotten from Dax a few days earlier and pointed it at one of the other 'tourists', shooting him in both knees and shoulders to disable them. Lia likewise opened fire, but Mare realized something was wrong.

(Those have no heartbeat!)

While Alice, Terra and Lia were doing admirably in the face of an unknown threat they were still hopelessly naive in the face of the cruelty of asymmetric modern drone warfare, but if Lux, Phillipa or Dax saw those countless tourists with large backpacks, their minds would immediately turn towards the terrifying unit known as an 'autonomous landmine'.

"Watch ou!-"

Not getting to finish that sentence, the several camouflaged drones standing around them detonated their 'suicide vests' at the same time, totalling a blast yield over 500 kilos of raw TNT mixed in with multiple types of shrapnel which tore trough people and buildings alike without mercy.