287 Indictment 1

"... This is bad isn't it?"

"It could be, but that all depends on the major controlling parties in the senate, if they care about the people then I should be alright, if they care more about the upcoming elections then I could be in quite hot water."

Already tired of dealing with politics, Dax connected to the IMI network and reacquainted himself with the current 5.013 elected representatives of the Galactic senate, looking up the various political parties and alliances in place while instructing IMI to dig deeper into the system and identify key industrial and pharmaceutical backers standing behind the different parties.

"... How hot would that water be exactly?"

As Solaris questioned Dax about the seriousness of his analogy he finished up his preliminary investigation, his findings were less than favourable.

"Think of a boiling deep fryer, then you've arrived at the correct heat level."

Before Solaris could say anything to that comment, police chief Hort walked up to the pair.

"Please make your way with us now Dax."

"Sure, but Solaris here is coming too."

"'No way' is what I want to say, but it seems I've no real choice in the matter, please follow me to the transport."

Full well knowing how Dax was after having dealt with him for a few weeks, Hort decided that Dax was to be his superior's headache and let him do as he pleased.

-

Flying to the centre of the capital, the police transport brought Dax and Solaris to a truly massive structure, the galactic senate. Situated with its own space elevator, the senate building itself outshined its elevator without issue as the mare sight of the serval kilometre tall dome like structure was simply boggled the mind with its sheer size. Landing on a landing area about half way up the structure Solaris immediately felt how thin the air was this far up, it reminded her of the sanctuary she had grown up in, only this building wasn't situated on top of a mountain chain, the building itself could be compared to a mountain.

(Now I understand why he was never that impressed with the architecture from my world, this simply can't compare…)

Scanning the landing pad with room for about 50 CAS-7 sized crafts, Solaris noticed that she was being watched by a group of people wearing strange full body armour standing near the entrance to the senate.

"Hey, who are those guys?"

"That would be the Qiton imperial guard, they're in charge of protecting this building, or more specifically the administrative AI. These guys are all qiton elder's like me or Phillipa so take care, they don't fuck around."

"Ah, so I take it this AI was once the 'emperor'?"

While Dax and Solaris were busying themselves with small talk, one of the qiton guards quickly walked up to them.

"Alpha-4, your presence is required in the 547th special meeting room, follow me."

Completely ignoring Solaris while addressing Dax only by his clan name, the qiton guard turned to leave, prompting Dax and Solaris to follow them until they arrived at the door and Solaris' path was blocked.

"Outsiders are not allowed inside."

"She's with me."

Stepping in between Solaris and the guards, Dax spoke in a low tone filled with bloodlust.

"That doesn't change anything."

"Yeah it does, she's also an Alpha-4 clan member."

"... Very well, but we'll be monitoring your every step inside this building."

Attempting to address Solaris over Dax's shoulder, Dax once more stepped in between Solaris and the guard as he spoke for her.

"That's not something out of the ordinary, is it? Just let us through already, I have a war to win after this."

Getting past the guards, Solaris and Dax were guided down a series of hallways by a single guard while Solaris felt numerous eyes on her that made no real attempt to hide their mistrust, although she couldn't pin down where from.

"... What just happened back there?"

"Just a bit of power abuse, declaring you a member of the Alpha-4 clan these guys can't touch you as they're at most Beta class clan members."

Seeing confusion visible on Solaris' face, Dax decided to do a quick Tl;dr version of qiton power structure.

"Qiton clans are ranked after their authority with Omega belonging to that of our creators, the Alpha clans are the most powerful there is, below them are the Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and so on clans, with qiton's not belonging to a clan at the lowest level of Psi."

"So if one of those guys were from an Alpha clan of higher status than you they could say something back?"

Quickly picking up on the highly authoritarian system of power within the qiton clans, Solaris worried if someone higher up in the food chain could punish Dax for what he had just done.

"In theory, yeah, but the Alpha 1, 2 and 3 level clans all left the Empire a long time ago, and without any Omega's there's nothing they can do or say about it, therefore it was slight abuse of power."

"Ah, you are quite cruel Dax…"

With their conversation wrapping up just as they arrived, Dax and Solaris were lead into a courthouse style room, with Dax taking the central pedestal while a group 11 suit clad people sitting along a long table opposed him appeared to round up their small talks before one of them addressed Dax as a representative while Solars took a seat on a bench behind Dax.

"So, why are you here too?"

As someone suddenly spoke right into her ear, Solaris flinched before looking to the side, finding Phillipa who had somehow snuck up on her.

"... Please don't do that ever again."

"You didn't answer my question, but it's fine, I can make an educated guess from your look of worry alone~"

Maintaining a casual attitude, Phillipa kicked back on the bench and placed her legs up on the empty bench in front of them like a teenager attempting to be edgy as she formed a smile.

"You don't seem overly concerned about this."

Choosing to entirely ignore Phillipa's attempts at jokes, Solaris continued to hold her feelings in check, although she was starting to fail.

"That's because I'm just the second in command, even if Dax is sentenced to death I could likely escape the same fate by blaming all the failures of the unit on him… That was a joke, please don't kill me."

Sensing the bloodlust and build up of mana from Solaris, Phillipa turned slightly more serious.

"Don't worry about this thing, there's zero chance these people will do anything bad towards Dax."

"Are you sure about that?"

Guessing the indictment was pertaining to the corruption rampant in the Hellwalkers, Solaris only believed it was logical that they would punish the unit's commander.

"Positive, but just sit back and watch, this will be a useful experience which will help you get used to dealing with the leadership of the Galactic Empire."

Not willing to say anymore, Phillipa left Solaris with no other choice than sitting back and hoping for the best.

But if the worst possibility happened she could still escape with Dax, killing everyone who stood in her way.

"Special forces commander Dax Alpha-4, I'm Representative Stone and will be representing the Galactic senate together with my 4 other coworkers sitting on either side of me doing this indictment. Do you have any idea why we've called upon you this evening?"

Having finished quietly discussing some matters with her fellow senate members, a middle aged lady with brown hair and green eyes named herself before addressing Dax who responded in a surprisingly serious tone of voice.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Representative Stone. As I've not been presented with any of the charges brought against me, I have no idea why I'm here."

"... It seems like we need to bring you under oath."

Taking his words for lies, Miss Stone slightly narrowed her eyes as she responded to Dax's statement.

"I'm speaking the truth, but feel free to have me take an oath… Oh, and get a lie detector too, that way we'll all waste a lot more time with all this, without my answer changing of course."

Snapping back in his own way, Miss Stone was about to say something when an older looking man with pure white hair and eyes spoke up from the other side of the table she sat at.

"Commander Dax is a back operations specialist carrying about countless things which are highly classified, expecting or attempting to coerce him into speaking the truth is a futile endeavour. This indictment does not seek to obtain the truth from commander Dax, as that is already guaranteed with his continued service to the Empire, but his current intentions and whether or not those intentions also serve the Galactic Empire's best interests. I believe all that was made clear to all members of the senate before the meeting."

As one of the people judging Dax stepped in to defend him, Solaris turned to Phillipa for an explanation as to why something like that would even happen.

"Representative Stone wants to pin the recent imitation Hellwalker incident on Dax and have him take the blame for it, being part of the people who did so will boost her chances of reelection and further cement her standing within the political party she belongs to. The one defending Dax is Council member Jackson, he serves as the current minister of special war affairs, the closest thing to a boss Dax has."

Bringing Solaris up to speed with a quiet whisper, Phillipa's smile widened as she continued.

"But politicians wanting political power is nothing new, therefore you don't need to pay as much attention to them, the people you, however, do need to pay attention to is Jackson and his fellow members of the special counsel, as well as the 'person' sitting in the middle while observing how things unfold."

Bringing Solaris' attention to the central figure sitting across from Dax, Solaris finally noticed that it was some sort of drone, only she didn't recognize it as any of the ones Dax used.

"Is that?"

"Yeah, it is the administrative AI, or one of its countless avatars at least. That thing is lost technology like the 'core' of the AI itself, all of it not possible to replicate."

Stealing one more glance as the surprisingly humanoid drone, Solaris wasn't even surprised she had mistaken it for a living being as it was almost indistinguishable from one.

('Lost technology' huh, seems like that's this worlds 'magic'... No, it might even be above what even magic can do.)

Seeing that there was way more to the current situation than she had first realized, Solaris crossed her legs and leaned back on the bench. As Phillipa said, this was a chance for Solaris to learn about the country whose military she had joined at the highest level.