293 Reconquest of the outer citadel 5

"Good work, I'll take it from here."

Finally replaced on her shift by Phillipa, Lilly dissolved the countless magic formations she had been maintaining for hours on end.

"... Thanks."

Offering only a weak response in return to Phillipa's words, Lilly swayed unsteadily as she fought her headache while returning to her crew quarters which were luckily near the bridge. Entering her room Lilly limply collapsed on her bed face first, she didn't even notice Dax who had come to visit before he spoke up.

"Should I leave?"

"No, just give me a second."

Fighting her drowsiness, Lilly got up from her bed and was immediately met by a hug from Dax who carried her back to his chair.

"Is this better?"

Responding to Dax���s question by burying her face in Dax's chest, Lilly finally felt relaxed after snuggling around as a cat would in his arms to find an optimal position.

"... Yeah, this is nice."

With Dax starting to pat her head, Lilly felt like her headache started evaporating, instead, her head felt like it was fluffy in a strange sort of way.

"Ehehe~"

Before she knew what had happened she let out a really strange sound, with her face flushing completely red, she panicked and looked up to Dax, but to Lilly's surprise, he didn't appear to have noticed it.

"When this war is over I'm going to retire."

Gently brushing Lilly's hair, Dax started monologuing with a far off look in his face.

"Killing and destruction are starting to feel tiresome, fighting is starting to feel tiresome. I want to just spend all day with you 3 relaxing."

"I'm thinking about Centus 3a. It's a small tropical moon specializing in agriculture, I would love to buy a small cottage and just spend all day lazing around in the sun, making all sorts of food with the locally produced produce... Sleep well, Lilly."

Finding Lilly had fallen asleep in his arms, Dax settled in, deciding to not disturb her sleep.

Although it got quite close in the end, the 3rd strike group was eventually reinforced by the 14th fast attack group who practically stumbled over their fortified position as quantum communication was still impossible due to a still largely unknown type of interference, interference which paradoxically appeared to increase in magnitude the closer one got to the citadel. While quantum communication was not affected by distance or even the speed of light, this interference seemed to be, something which Lux found very fascinating.

"This interference is definitely something that the Emergence has cooked up, they don't appear to be affected by it, and it only seems to increase in strength the closer you get to our current objective."

Holding a joint meeting with Dax, Phillipa, fleet admiral Simmons of the 3rd strike group and fleet admiral Tomson of the 14th fast attack group.

"That's perfect. It's like a beacon leading us straight towards our current objective, we couldn't ask for a better navigation point."

"Agreed, my newly retrofitted ships will be able to deal with just about anything Emergence can throw at us, I say we press on and secure the citadel before they adjust."

While Dax and admiral Tomson agreed on pushing forward to secure the objective, but admiral Simmons had his reservations.

"... I don't know about that, my crew is pretty tired out after holding here for so long, not even mentioning your mana users Dax, don't they need to rest before we press forward?"

"Yeah they do, which is why we'll have Tomson and her fleet take point, those ships have been equipped with a next generation mana interface, so they do not need spell casters, just an absurd level of processing power which me, Lux and Phillipa can provide by mind melting."

With Dax explaining the 14th's no need for spell casters, Simmons was presented with the opportunity to play rear guard until the two fleets reached the citadel, something which would allow his crew to relax and kick back as he had wanted. But more than that, it seemed there was no issue in pressing forth to finally retake territory which had been lost to the Emergence for hundreds of years, the very idea of that put a smile on Simmons' face.

"Then we press ahead to retake the citadel... It feels good to say that, how long have we been on the defensive in this war?"

"I don't know, to be honest, all I know is my boys are eager to finally be on the offensive once again, the 14th isn't a defensive fleet, we're meant to smash through enemy lines just like we are now."

---

[EXITING GATE IN: 3… 2… 1… BRACE.]

"Dax, put up our defences! Have all fighters launch to secure our immediate surroundings and get rid of the barrage ships too, they're weighing us down!"

Entering C-201 D-11, fleet admiral Tomson took a second to glance at the twin red dwarf stars orbiting around each other at the centre of the system as she barked out orders.

[IMI PROXIMITY ALERT: UNKNOWN OBJECTS INSIDE THE WIRE, KILLING WITH CWIS.]

As the flagship Aggression emerged from its gate, countless rapid firing gun turrets all over her hull came alive and lit up the surrounding minefield she had found herself inside while fighters and the considerably larger barrage ships launched from her hangers.

"The rest of the fleet has the beacon, 30 seconds to estimated arrival!"

[IMI REPORTS: NO HOSTILE CONTACTS DETECTED. 3521 LARGE CLASS PROJECTILES DETECTED, IMPACT IMMINENT. KILLING WITH CWIS.]

"What? Find them!"

As IMI and the battleships sensors by extension couldn't detect any Emergence ships, but there clearly was something which was shooting at them, admiral Tomson almost lost her temper as the officers under her command redoubled their efforts to locate the hostile ships.

"It's the planetary defences shooting at us, IMI has them marked as friendly units because they're still emitting the correct IFF signal. Feel free to nuke anything other than C-201 D-11 4a, as it's home to whatever is jamming our quantum communications. We want to know exactly what it is so we can counter it if we run into something like it again."

Recognizing the type of projectiles as those belonging to the so called 'cloud ripper' planet class defensive railguns, Dax's eyes turned cold.

"You heard the Hellwalker, weapons officer! Identify planetary defences on body 1 to 6F and engage! Don't be sparing as we need to report on how these new Lazarus fusion torpedoes perform!"

"Yes ma'am! IMI reports that weapon systems are unlocked and ready to fire, dumping all ready munitions."

With the single press of a switch, 512 Lazarus 920 mill fusion torpedoes launched all at once as targeting information was transmitted before they all completely disappeared off the scanners. 

"Splash 10 seconds!"

After starting the counter battery, all subsequent railgun fire from the Emergence went into a futile attempt at intercepting the countless fusion torpedoes sent their way, but against Ra's newest toys there was no way they were going to hit.

"Splash… All Emergence fortifications annihilated."