301 Blitz offensive 1

Wrapping up the campaign to retake the outer citadel, fleet commander Simmons not only addressed the entirety of his staff and crew, but also the entirety of the galactic navy command while Dax and the others listened in from the sidelines. 

"This overwhelming victory is due not just to the brave men and women who have braved our long drawn up front lines in this daring offensive, but also the new N generation technology provided by Lazarus, the new weapon systems impact is immense and the Emergence has shown absolutely no way of countering the now available offensive and defensive capabilities now available to the 3rd strike group and the 14th fast attack group. It is my firm opinion that we must press this advantage and deliver a decisive strike to the Emergence before it can adapt to it."

[Strike while the iron is hot, a sound strategy. Go ahead.]

[Agreed, I assume you already have a clear objective in mind?]

With an instant response from the special counsel representative who was at the top of naval command and the administrative AI, fleet admiral Simmons' bearded face drew a sly smile which quickly disappeared as he returned to a blank expression.

"I propose striking the former iron race industrial sector with a blitz offensive to cripple the Emergence fleet production, doing so should cut its industrial output by 60% for at least half a year, fatally crippling their already crumbling fleet and make sure that they are not able to launch a counteroffensive for the remainder of the war."

"... 'remainder of the war' he says, Simmons is surprisingly bold."

Observing from the sidelines Solaris couldn't help but comment on the admiral's confidence.

"Yeah, that's how he normally is, the iron race containment war and a few other uprisings he suppressed before that earned him quite a fitting nickname: The wrath of the empire."

"I'm willing to bet that he's aiming to conduct an attack on the Emergence main nerve cluster immediately after that blitz too, this is just the kind of commander he is, that's why we're such good drinking buddies, flocks of a feather and all that."

-

Having exited the transport, Lux took a short look around at her birthplace, the city was made out of supermassive 'blocks' of residential and industrial sectors which moved around to maximize efficiency, like moving a drydock near the centralized space elevator to receive prefabricated modules and then relocating it to where the dockworkers were living, all while work was still being done.

"... Looks like this dump hasn't changed one bit, even if they keep moving around the city blocks, this place is still the same depressive piece of shit it has always been. I'm going to find a bar, see you all in a week."

Nevertheless, Lux wasn't that pleased about being in the city where she had grown up in an orphanage after her parents had died, so she immediately split off from the group to find a place to numb her senses, and properly get laid too, although Dax didn't really want to think about that.

"Off she goes…"

"Lux really doesn't like this place and I tend to agree with her on that point for some personal reasons. Let's head for the barracks and dump off our weapons first, then all of you are free to either stay with me and Phillipa or go about your own devices and explore the city."

Going on foot to the Hellwalker barracks, Lilly quickly noticed the frankly absurd number of planetary defences installed throughout the residential districts, more importantly, the people were acting strange, most viewed Dax and Phillipa with openly hostile expressions while others did their best to stay out of the group's way while quietly whispering among themselves.

"... Dax?"

"I'll explain later, for now just ignore it."

"Okay."

While Lilly did her best to ignore the people around her, Mare was unable to do the same as her sharper than normal senses picked up everything, all the words of disgust, all the sneers and all the bloodlust made the small beaskin's ears stand at constant attention and flickering about.

"Don't mind them, miss Mare."

Until Lia gripped her attention by speaking in the language of magic that is.

"Filth like that is common in all lower walks of life like this one. They're all bark and no bite unless someone has the stones to ignite their discontent and as they are all cowards without exception that won't happen. It is best to ignore them entirely."

While Mare's senses were sharp, Lia had her beat when it came to life experience. As a former cartel enforcer, she was used to being leered at by the masses as they were at the moment, she knew that if it really came to it, these people were of little to no threat.

"... Okay, I'll try."

"That's all we can do at the end of the day."

Having reassured Mare, Lia quickly confirmed that her heartbeat had relaxed quite a bit but after the small beastkin grabbed Lia's hand she finally settled in and relaxed with a warm smile on her face. It was only when a person in the crowd who had been leering at the group of Hellwalkers saw that smile he decided to act, walking directly towards the group he didn't get to take more than 3 steps before Dax noticed him. Placing a hand on his pistol holster, Dax came to a stop as he stared down the man with a blank expression on his face.

"Can I help you?"

"N-"

"Then stay the fuck out of our way, we don't want to repeat history here."

While Dax stared down the man with a blank expression while waiting to see if he would draw the pistol he had stuffed down his trousers, the rest of Dax's group also seemed to realize what was going on, in response Solaris quietly started preparing a defensive spell formation while Ifrit simply started smiling.

"We're not here by choice, give us the chance and we'll move on without doing anything."

With a few more seconds of tense silence, the man eventually backed off when one of his friends came up and dragged him away.

"So, what the hell was that?"

Having stoved their conventional weapons, Lilly wasted no time to bring up the earlier incident with anger clearly visible on her face.

"Qiton's are not welcome here, it's that simple."

"This world originally had a large minority population of qiton's who had rejected tradition and abandoned our homeworld, but after a series of clashes, transgressions and lynches from both sides they eventually left."

As Phillipa stepped in and expanded on Dax's explanation she had a bitter look on her face, the others would later learn that someone she knew had been lynched on the open street doing the height of civil unrest.

"With that history still quite clear in the mind of these people, they've eventually become quite xenophobic, if anyone here wants to go explore the city, make sure to do so in groups, and always carry a service weapon."

With the notion that they were not necessarily in friendly territory even after returning from the front lines, the depressive realization to why Dax, Lux and Phillipa mostly kept to themselves after coming back 'home' to the galactic empire became clear.