297 Retaking body 4A 4

"... Yes, sir. I'm sorry."

With Lux acting uncharacteristically timid while Dax reprimanded her, even as they were still in the middle of a fierce battle to retake the fortress Delta-14 which laid directly above the drydock which housed both the primary and secondary objective for their current operation.

[As long as you understand then it's all fine, still, that was fucking spectacular, I'm proud of you!]

With Commander Dax done reprimanding his subordinate, it was now Dax's turn to comment on how badass his daughter had just been, if he could talk to Ra and Mu right now he would have them hack into the galactic broadcast so he could show the entire empire how badass his daughter had just been.

"Thanks, dad!~"

While Lux caved trough a swarm of Emergence hexapods using her Kali armour and 4 single bladed, mana powered plasma swords she had an unmistaken child like grin on her face, something which made for quite a horrific sight if one didn't know the context.

"... Now I understand why Lux is the way she is…"

Meanwhile, Terra who had listened in on the small episode of father and daughter bonding had a wry smile on her face as she used magic to look through a nearby wall, shooting Emergence drones on the other side with her rifle before breaching the room by shattering the wall. Gunning down all resistance on the other side, Terra shot some of the drones which still moved a few extra times before gripping her radio.

"This is Terra, I've cleared out my sector."

[Good, move on to the next then, we're almost done wiping all of them out here.]

Receiving new orders from Dax over the radio, Terra discarded her emptied magazine and inserted a fresh one in her rifle before breathing a short sigh, while she was more used to fighting with swords and magic, this rifle which was currently in her hands was the easiest for dealing with the Emergence drones and cyborgs she was facing at the moment, therefore this was what she used. In the end, the Emergence didn't really stand a chance of holding on to fortification Delta-14, as soon as Lux breached one side with her spearhead unit, the other sides quickly fell too, then the fortress' interior was quickly retaken trough close quarters combat, but the real challenge still laid ahead, or more correctly it laid below the fortress itself.

"... Please say that again, I think I misheard."

"No you didn't Lilly, I said that the drydock is about 100 times larger than this fortress. The structure itself stretches deep down this planet's outer mantle and was originally built to serve as a home for the entirety of the Galactic Empire's 4th outer rim patrol fleet, one of the largest fleets ever assembled."

"Luckily the drydock is mostly wide open spaces and berths for ships to dock at, but it is protected by railgun turrets placed at all access points. Therefore instead of taking a few months to slowly beat down the Emergence presence down there, we're conducting a blitz attack on the Emergence nerve cluster using the Jugguanut, taking that out should deal with all remaining hostile forces in one fell swoop."

The simplest way of dealing with the Emergence on the scale of a single system was destroying its nerve clusters, without those its local hive mind would be cut off from the whole and stop receiving new orders, but more importantly, cut the now local section of the Emergence off from most of its processing power. Denying the Emergence of processing power would lead to degeneration of its local forces until they stopped working entirely as they were unable to even figure out how to maintain themselves without a large enough base of processing power.

"So we get in quick and smash this thing's brain? That sounds like a plan~✿"

"Given the option of having a dumber than normal opponent I would always choose that, let's do it."

"Exactly what Lia said, there's no need for us to fight fair, is there?"

"Nope, as the saying goes: Fighting fair is for suckers."

-

"We're coming up on the drydock, I hope you guys are ready for some high G manoeuvres!"

Having spent the last few minutes in a free fall without the sense of gravity present, Dax warned of the Jug's upcoming evasive manoeuvres. Although the Jug was designed with high survivability and an emphasis on extreme manoeuvrability which was exactly what was needed to evade the countless defences ahead, the same couldn't be said for the fleshly meat bags riding inside it, if the craft went above their G limits they might burst.

"Divert all power to defensive gravity drives and propulsion!"

[IMI CONFIRMES NEW DIRECTIVE: READY FOR MAXIMUM DENSITY THREAT MATRIX.]

"Time for a return of the vomit comet! Puke in your own helmets or the bags offered to you please~"

With a large smile on her face, Lux pointed out what Dax had purposely brushed over, making everyone except Dax, Lux herself and Phillipa's faces turn white as they still had traumatic memories of their formative experiences with the comet.

"God, please save us."

"God has left you Solaris, sadly that mighty creator of yours gifted you a body which is able to puke, I don't have that issue~✿"

With Ifrit getting in the final words, a yellow light in the crew compartment of the Juggernaut made everyone aware of imminent high G manoeuvres, ending all talks as doing so while the craft evaded would most likely end with a lot of blood and bitten off tongues. Clearing the access shaft, the juggernauts' countless spotlights pointing in all directions suddenly revealed nothing other than empty air, a testament to the sheer scale of the underground drydock.

But the Juggernauts sensors revealed a lot more than just empty air however, massive and rapid power surges from railguns flooding their rails with electrical charge as they fired, countless LIDAR, RADAR and laser weapons systems locking on as well as the Jug's own LIDAR warning of incoming missiles all worked together to light up every single warning light and sensor screen without fail. As the rail guns fired at the Juggernaut it instantly switched flight direction to evade, not relying on electric thrusters or even jet engines for propulsion, the craft was easily able to execute manoeuvres which would normally have been impossible with those traditional types of propulsion, switching flight directions like a dragonfly hunting pray the Juggernaut made it seem like the Emergence was purposely missing it.

[EMERGENCE NERVE CLUSTER ENERGY SIGNATURE LOCATED, PLOTTING MANOEUVRE NODE… COMPLETE, EXECUTING COMPOUND REACTION PACKAGE 1 OF 4406, ETA 2 MINUTES.]

Continuing to evade direct targeting from the countless anti ship railguns attempting to hit the Juggernaut it was quickly made clear that they simply couldn't keep up with its manoeuvres, the same couldn't be said about the various classes of guided anti air missiles, however, as they were made to track small, fast moving targets like the Jug.

[CAFF, FLARES. SOFT KILL SYSTEM ONLINE, HARD KILL SYSTEM ONLINE, LOCALIZING EVENT(S)... EVENT(S) LOCALIZED: PULSING.]

Using every single defensive countermeasure in its repertoire, the Juggernaut spewed out flares and radar reflective caff all over as a fleet of lasers and microwave transmitters on the outside of its hull worked to fry and or blind the delicate guidance hardware of some of the missiles, the craft even crushed some of the missiles with gravitational tidal forces generated by its offensive gravity drive. Quickly passing through the entrance of the drydock where most of its defences were located the Juggernauts point defence systems only had to deal with the occasional sporadic interception measure as it neared the Emergence nerve cluster which was located on one of the lowest levels of the dock.

[TARGET IN SIGHT, REQUESTING PERMISSION TO STERILIZE.]

"Permission granted! Destroy it completely!"

As the gigantic mass of misshapen communication arrays and military supercomputers finally came within strike range, Dax was quick to give his command.

[ORDER CONFIRMED, TARGET LOCKED, LOCALIZING AREA… AREA LOCALIZED, ISOLATING… TARGET ISOLATED, NOW COMMENCING DIRECT GRAVITATIONAL MULTI STAGE COMPRESSION.]

Bringing the full might of its gravitational generator to bear, the Juggernaut first pulled the nerve cluster apart at a molecular level before crushing the skyscraper sized installation down to the size of a coin.

[TARGET ANNIHILATED.]